


A Favor Owed

by Star-Lord Stark (SpookzMagenta)



Series: Blackmail is a Harsh Term (Let's Call it Chicanery) [1]
Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel, Norse Religion & Lore, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Bruce is omnipotent, Don't strike bargains with the God of Lies, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Frostiron Bang 2013, Lies, Loki is a prima donna, Loki likes to dress up as a ginger, M/M, Magic, Pepper and Loki are bros, Rescue Armor, Secrets, Tony quit using your scotch as a teddy bear, Until it's accidentally a real relationship, life debts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-28
Updated: 2013-09-28
Packaged: 2017-12-27 19:58:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 35,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/982994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpookzMagenta/pseuds/Star-Lord%20Stark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After getting his ass saved by the God of Mischief, multiple times, Tony had a debt to repay.  So he struck a little deal with Loki, and things went a teensy bit haywire from there.  He found himself dreaming about striking green eyes, and he knew there was something more to the God of Mischief that he hadn't figured out.  He was determined to solve the mystery.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. After Extremis

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is the first installment in my series, Blackmail is a Harsh Term. The series will be a quartet, with a fifth smaller segment serving as an epilogue. Parts two and three are now complete and posted, and part four is posted and three chapters short of completion. This is my first story, written for the 2013 Frostiron Bang. I sincerely hope you will enjoy it.  
> http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/post/62410779090/round-2-everybody-this-ones-for-roxy-who-knows  
> This is the first of the amazing artwork that the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com made for me! I was so lucky that I got the artist I did for this bang. I even proposed. There are five more absolutely beautiful drawings in the notes at the end of the chapters they go with, and all of the art links are posted in a note at the end of the story.  
> 

Tony groaned as he curled his body further into the knotted mess of his bedclothes. While shifting, his hand brushed the rounded neck of a glass bottle a few inches away from his face. The room was dark as pitch, despite the fact that he knew it must be nearing afternoon (he hadn’t given in to the alcohol induced drowsiness until shortly before dawn, trekking up the stairs from his lab to his bedroom to curl up with his bottle of scotch). Unless his brief stint of sobriety and stability had thrown him off his game, he was absurdly accurate at judging the passage of time based on the intensity of his hangover. One of his hands absently traced the scarred center of his chest. The healed flesh felt empty, cavernous. It felt like everything echoed in the hollow that had once been forced open by the arc reactor. 

Tony carefully cracked open his eyes, one at a time, reluctant to return to consciousness, but knowing he couldn’t coax himself back to sleep. At least, not without a lot more liquor, and the hangover he was sporting really wasn’t interested in that. He patted around the pillows in search of his phone, and when he successfully located it, unlocked it to check the time. 11:58 a.m… technically still morning, who’d a thought. Tony Stark, genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist (or at least, former playboy… he didn’t really know what to label himself anymore, on that count) was awake before noon and all without the help of the perfect Pepper Potts. 

“JARVIS, love, could you be a dear and turn the lights on to the lowest setting,” Tony said, less cattily than he’d hoped it would come out.

“But of course, sir.” Tony braced himself as he sat up, the dim lighting still fairly burning his retinas.

Tony pointedly didn’t look at the empty side of his bed before getting up, didn’t look at the empty space in his closet where Pepper’s clothes had been until so recently, while he grabbed a clean Rolling Stones t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He ambled stiffly into the bathroom, turning on the shower nearly as hot as it would go, stripping his boxers off and tossing them onto the floor. He stepped under the spray, hissing as the scalding water hit his skin. He began soaping himself disinterestedly, his thoughts elsewhere as always lately. 

He remembered how blessedly perfect it had all seemed for a breath of time. Pepper was safe, the Extremis was purged from her system, the possibility of her fiery death no longer haunted either of them at night. And Tony, for the first time in years, no longer had to fear the shrapnel waiting to inch its way inexorably closer to his heart. The glow of the arc reactor no longer distracted his eyes as he tried to coax them to stillness, and his mind to stillness, as he pursued sleep. For a few weeks, the nightmares had even stopped, and he’d so naively thought that was that. Pepper, she’d been so happy after that fireworks show he’d done with his suits. No more Iron Man. No more watching her lover fly off to his death. 

But they were both different, now. Too different. That’s what Pepper had told him when he came home that day, her things already packed and waiting to be removed from the Tower. Her eyes had been gleaming with unshed tears. His heart had stuttered when he’d walked in and seen those bundles waiting to be carried off, seen the blanched color of her face when she turned to look at him. He could still feel her fingers on his cheek as she’d stared determinedly into his eyes. 

“Tony, I love you. I always will. But we’re done. I’ve been done for too long now. And as much as I hate it, as much as I want to pretend it isn’t true and keep on waking up next to you every morning, I can’t. We can’t.” Her tears were falling, slowly, now. “You were right, every time you said that you are Iron Man. The suit and you really were one. The first time you put it on, Tony, it became a part of you. And I let you destroy that.” He’d tried to talk to her, to reason with her, to beg her, even, but she’d hushed him and cradled him against her as the tears began falling from his own eyes. “I know Tony. I know now. You need Iron Man. You need Iron Man more than you’ve ever needed me. Tony, when I was still infected with Extremis, I… it was a relief, when you found a way to get rid of it, a relief to not be afraid of the fire burning out of control and consuming me. But I felt more alive when I was infected with Extremis than I have in my entire life. Once it was gone… it felt like something vital had been ripped out of me. You can’t go back, Tony. I don’t want you to. You deserve to be Iron Man. And I can’t go back, either. I can’t have Extremis now, but I can’t be who I was before, either. I have to learn how to fit into my life again now, Tony. I know it hurts. It’s going to hurt for a long time, for both of us. But you’re going to be okay without me.” 

He didn’t know how long he stared out of the windows of the penthouse, seeing nothing, after that. It had to be hours. He’d drunken himself into a stupor nearly every day since, only sleeping when his body began to shake so hard that he couldn’t hold the tools in his workshop any longer. Pepper was still running things, still the star CEO of Stark Industries, and he saw her when he stumbled piss drunk into the few meetings he couldn’t avoid completely. He hadn’t been going out, hadn’t been letting the masses of women (and men) fawning over him drag him home with them or follow him home, and he knew that, perhaps more than anything, was worrying Pepper. He knew she hated him sleeping around, even before there was anything between them, but he knew she’d rather him be rutting like a goddamn teenager than think that he was stuck, incapable of moving on. 

He turned off the water, toweling off his body and putting on his clothes without even bothering to glance in the mirror. This afternoon was one of those bloody meetings he couldn’t avoid, which now meant the added sting of having to see Pepper who, though also obviously hurting, was still perfect, stunning Pepper. He called Happy to let him know to have the limo waiting and headed down to the lobby of the tower, stepping outside when he saw the car pull up to the curve. As he was reaching for the door handle, a prickle of fear went down his spine. 

“Get down.” The words were hissed in a very posh European accent, the voice dangerously deep and irritated. 

He couldn’t tell if the words were spoken aloud or in his head, because right across the street from him he could see the shimmering, transparent figure of the God of Mischief who’d so recently tried to conquer the earth. With the words came a tug and he felt himself complying with the order, and as he did, he heard the sharp whistle of air above his head as a bullet sped past and embedded itself in the metal of Stark Tower. As soon as Loki’s image had appeared, it was gone again.


	2. A Lot of Internal Flailing and a Wake Up Call

Chaos erupted after that. Tony vaguely remembered Happy flying out of the limo, pushing him into the back of the car and forcing him onto the floor, then ducking down beside of him. He remembered the urgent tone of Happy’s voice as he called for backup, SHIELD officers showing up and flanking the vehicle, scouting the area around Stark Tower. But there were no more bullets fired and hours later they returned to headquarters empty handed. Tony had been ushered into the SHIELD base almost immediately after the agents had arrived in front of the tower. He didn’t say a word about the Asgardian that had popped up briefly when the shot was fired, or the voice in his head and the push he had felt to listen to it. After listening to what the SHIELD team had found –nothing- and being quizzed on the events by Director Fury, he’d offered some lame recount with him leaning down to tie his sneaker when the shot was fired. He could tell Fury didn’t really buy it, but then again, he didn’t seem as overtly suspicious as he usually was of Tony, either. Probably had something to do with the not part of the SHIELD-superhero-boy-band anymore shtick. 

He wasn’t entirely sure why he was skirting around mentioning Loki… maybe because half of him was convinced it was the result of too much alcohol, caffeine, and sleep deprivation. That half of him was desperate for it to all be in his head. The other half had felt a disturbing frisson of excitement when he saw those steely green eyes, an excitement he hadn’t felt since Pepper left. An excitement he hadn’t felt, if he was honest, since the day he destroyed all of his Iron Man suits. That knife’s edge of pure terror and anticipation that had died when the arc reactor and the shrapnel were artfully plucked from his chest. Even now, his heart pounded insistently underneath his sternum, its enthusiasm exhausting. 

Pepper had shown up at SHIELD when she’d heard the news, her mouth set in a grim line. She knew there was something he was holding back, knew what Fury could only guess at. The words were there unspoken between them. If you would build another suit… if you were Iron Man again… bullets couldn’t hurt you. Or maybe more like he wouldn’t be so careless, so defenseless, and most of the people out to get him wouldn’t want to reap the rewards of killing him without the battle to go along with it. But instead of saying any of that, Pepper just hugged him, briefly, lightly, and handed him his reorganized schedule for the week (after missing that day’s meeting). Then she gave him a small, sad smile and left.

When Tony finally got home that night, he didn’t go down to his lab. He did pour himself a scotch, then two, then three… but when he fell into his bed he was only tipsy, not drunk, for the first night in weeks. As he lay there drifting slowly toward sleep, the look in Pepper’s eyes haunted him, the one that practically begged him to bring back Iron Man, to build another suit, for at least one of them to be doing something with their game changing force of will. He was just intoxicated enough, just exhausted enough, to admit to himself that he didn’t think he was worthy of Iron Man anymore. After all, he was the one who’d destroyed it. All because he was selfish enough to want to be whole again. He had wanted to let Pepper heal him, finally. He’d wanted to shut away his father, his parents’ deaths, Afghanistan, Obadiah, that fucking wormhole. He’d wanted to destroy every single paranoia and PTSD induced idea he’d ever had.

Just before sleep finally gripped him, his mind fixated on another pair of eyes. That pair of eyes had been flickering like twin pools of jade malevolence, irate and leveled on him and him alone. He’d convince himself later that he imagined the little skip his pulse made in something that resembled anticipation.

 

The next night, Tony made a point of going out to his former haunts. He drank himself silly, but not to the point of helpless inebriation that had been his usual lately. If he was being a little (more like a lot) reckless after the day before, so what? He let himself be surrounded by the usual horde of women and men (whose looks were the best that money could buy, even if Tony Stark never had to pay). He even let the three least irritating of the group (the three that weren't begging to be regaled with tales of Iron Man) trail after him to the limo. Two tall, willowy blonde women and a well built man with chesnut brown hair were the lucky winners of the evening. He had Happy take them to an absurdly luxurious hotel, and spent the night fucking the three of them senseless. He’d made certain that there had been ample opportunity for the paparazzi to get pictures that night and the next morning when he made his walk of shame back out to his limo.

The sex had been fun, though not really satisfying. Then again, he supposed, that was the way it had always been. No wonder he’d worked his way through such an astounding number of sexual conquests over the years. Hopefully, at least, this would take that sheen of pity out of Pepper’s eyes when she looked at him. And even if it didn’t, at least he was working through his… frustrations… some way, right?


	3. But Seriously, a Wake Up Call

SHIELD still hadn’t found a trace of whoever had tried to shoot him. Of course, they knew what type of bullet from what type of gun, but that was as far as they’d been able to get. Which was, yeah, well, fucking impressive of his mystery-would-be-murderer. Tony had kind of been avoiding his lab like the plague ever since; he'd been avoiding the draw of the same tools, the same materials that he’d used to make his suits. Without getting lost in his lab, his mind was too free. There was too much clarity, and he wanted to drown out the voice in his head that was calling him out on his current avoidance bullshit. He’d also had too much time to think about Loki, and yeah, so far there had been no news from Asgard that the little shit had managed to escape… whatever punishment they had going for him up there. 

So it was with no small amount of surprise that, as he headed out to the parking garage of the building in which one of Stark Industries’ annual charity benefits was being held on his way home (about a week after the attempted shooting), that he had his next encounter with the Trickster. He was walking toward his red Audi, his hand reaching into his pocket to pull out his keys, when a sudden force threw him nearly all the way across the concrete space. His shock didn’t even have time to register before his car imploded, and he just barely noticed a faint green glow surrounding him. He could feel the heat of the explosion but remained safe, even comfortable. And suddenly he was there. Loki was in front of him, eyes blazing fiercer than the flames and mouth curling into a snarl. His form still seemed intangible, shimmering a little around the edges. He hissed the word “fool,” and he was gone.

Tony ran for the exit, that faint swirl of green still hovering around him, and forced his way through the doors. He dialed the number for Director Fury and hurriedly gave his location, the word bomb, and whatever other pertinent information was quizzed out of him. He didn’t really remember the details. His mind was racing the entire time, faced with the knowledge that he had not imagined this, and that if he hadn’t imagined this, the first time had been real, too. Loki had saved him twice. And it appeared that Tony was the only one who knew that Loki wasn’t as contained as they’d all been led to believe. 

 

Convincing Fury that he had no idea who or what had shielded him from that explosion (because, really, there was no way he was ever going to be able to convince the guy that magic hadn’t somehow been involved in saving his ass in this scenario) was a phenomenally difficult task. It involved a lot of his usual bitching and whining (over his poor sweet baby, what did his car ever do to deserve this?). When Fury finally let him leave SHIELD headquarters, he was almost positive the pirate-esque director still thought he was full of shit. Which, of course, he was, and everybody knew it, but it’d be nice if for once Fury wouldn’t give him the ninth degree and would just take his word for it. He really didn’t need Fury breathing down his neck while he attempted to figure out what the actual fuck was going on. He saw Pepper just long enough on the way out to assure her that he was okay, and yeah, there was that little sliver of fed-the-fuck-up he’d been hoping to put back in her eyes. 

Over the next week, he still hadn’t wrapped his head around the idea of his current situation any better than when he had spoken with Fury, and he’d been walking around in a constant state of suspense. The fight-flight circuit in his brain was going to be fucked for good after this, if it hadn’t been already. SHIELD had, of course, determined the type of bomb used on Tony’s car and the trigger for it, but beyond that had once again come up dry. On day three of the next week, Tony caved and disappeared into his lab, pouring over the files and footage they had of Loki. He had a feeling the god’s magic would leave some kind of fingerprint, some kind of energy signature that he could use to alert him when he popped up anywhere on Earth. By the fifth day after the explosion, he’d managed to pin down what he thought were the particular energy readings from the times Loki had worked his magic. 

Seven days after he was saved by the God of Mischief Tony had a prototype alert system set up in the Tower, but as genius as he was, with the infinitesimally small amount of material he had to work with he wasn’t really expecting much out of the device. He found himself (pleasantly?) surprised late that evening. He had come up from his lab, bored with poking around with the alarm he’d been designing (since there wasn’t really much more progress he could make without more data to observe) and was pouring himself a scotch at the bar in his penthouse when JARVIS’ voice rang out.

“Sir, the alarm on project Rudolf has been triggered.”


	4. Enter: Rudolph, and a Proverbial Smack Upside the Head

Tony could only gape as he turned away from the bar. Even if the alarm hadn’t been triggered and JARVIS had been silent, he would have known the moment the god arrived in his penthouse from the way every hair on his body stood on end. And sure enough, when he completed his slow turn about of the living room, there was Loki reclining gracefully on his sofa with an eyebrow quirked. 

It took a moment for his eyes to actually register what they were seeing, however. Despite the god’s affected nonchalance and relaxed posture, he was a wreck. Gone was the leather and armor he’d last seen him in. Now, instead, he was clothed in the bloody and tattered remains of a simple green tunic and black pants. His impeccably slicked back hair was instead a riot of unruly ebony curls that tumbled to his shoulders in complete disarray. Blood trailed from his nose and from several splits in his lips, and when he sighed, Tony could see more blood coated to his teeth. The flesh exposed by Loki’s tattered clothing appeared either bruised, bleeding, or bloodstained (or varying combinations of the three) and the Trickster was even paler than before. His once slender frame was now gaunt, all long bony limbs and sharp joints. For that matter… several of those joints didn’t appear to be in the right place. 

“Do you like what you see?” the voice tried for haughty and condescending, but was too raspy to succeed.

Tony actually flinched. Oh well, he’d be embarrassed about that later.

“Much as I like tall, dark, and batshit insane, I’m going to have to pass, darling. I prefer my bedmates cognizant and not hemorrhaging on my sofa.” Tony was glad he’d had the forethought to command JARVIS to stop recording on the surveillance cameras if he had any unexpected guests the night he got back from SHIELD headquarters after his car was bombed. He liked to think his security on his private servers was tight enough to deter Fury’s lackeys, but in the highly improbable event that they did actually manage to crack his firewall, there was no way in hell he could explain his way out of this.

Loki’s mind seemed to be on a similar page, because then he was hissing, “You owe me, Stark. Or did you think I saved your wretched hide twice for free?” 

Oh yeah, there was the scathing menace Tony had been expecting. 

“If you even think for a split second of informing on me to your merry little band of misfits or the misbegotten organization that holds your leash, I will end you.”

And yeah, that little trill of terror that was marching its way down Tony’s spine had no right to go and make his fickle and traitorous nervous system excited. 

“Relax, Snow White. I’m still too curious to go handing you over to Snake Plissken.” Loki’s brow furrowed at the pop culture references. Undoubtedly, he had no idea what they meant, but he was doing a good job of playing insulted regardless. “What the fuck happened to you, anyway?”

“I will tell you what I deign to tell you, Stark, and no more.” Loki glared, reinforcing his statement. “However, as it does me no particular ill to answer your query, I just fought my way out of a cell in Asgard’s dungeons with my magics severely restricted.” He paused. “My kin sewed shut my traitorous lips long enough to shackle me; they twined dwarven made cuffs about my wrists to repress the vast majority of my magic. Then, they restricted my intake of food and drink to keep me... biddable.” The god’s lips quirked in a sadistic smile. 

Tony’s mouth was not going fish gulp on the air, nope. Definitely not. Hell, he’d certainly not been expecting the cuckoo for cocoa puffs alien to get off easy… but Tony was so not okay with torture. Dungeon and magic dampening? Fine, yeah, he could totally get behind that. But starvation, dehydration, having his lips sewn shut so he couldn’t do magic, and having the guards beat the fuck out of him instead of just restraining him on his little traipse out of there? It wasn't doing so hot for Tony’s post-Afghanistan psyche and morals. 

“Would it please you to tell me how you escaped?” Yeah, so, Tony may still have been freaking out in his own noggin, but no need to flaunt it in front of the God of Lies. He made his tone as buttery as he could manage (which was pretty sickeningly buttery, from years of practice at getting what he wanted). 

Loki merely scoffed at him. “Do try to at least be convincing if you’re going to play at groveling to me. I thought you, of all your troop of would-be heroes, could do better.”

“Yeah, well, me and the boy band aren’t exactly doing live shows or recording together anymore, in case you didn’t get the memo. I’m just your average "mortal" now.”

The god’s nose crinkled in disgust. “But how could I have forgotten. The genius destroyed his work for a mere woman. Tell me, Stark, where is she now, your so very human lover?”

Tony had known Loki would play dirty, but goddamn that was a low blow. He kept his face carefully schooled to not show just how furious the god’s goad had made him. He knew the stillness of his features in and of itself would probably be a dead giveaway, however. 

“I’ll answer your question if you answer mine, and I asked first.”

“For a human, you are either very brave or very foolish, especially in light of the fact that you have nothing here to protect you now.” Loki’s iridescent eyes effectively pinned him in place. “Very well, mortal, I will tell you how I managed my escape. I have no need of your pitiful explanations, however. I already know very well that your mate abandoned you.” Loki paused. “But first, do please allow me to reset my bones. It would appear that a few of them have… traveled.” Loki stood, but as he did, he swayed slightly on his feet, face blanching to an even paler hue. 

Tony sat his drink back on the counter and walked up to the god before he could contemplate just how bad of an idea it was. 

“Whoa there, Rudolph. You’re looking a few shades deathly paler. You came to the right place, though. As a mere “mortal,” I’ve had a ton of experience with popping dislocated something or others back where they belong. That is, if it suits you to let me play LEGOs with your skeleton.” He waggled his eyebrows at Loki, who gave a long suffering sigh in response.

“Very well, Stark. It would prove rather difficult to reset a dislocated shoulder with yet another dislocated shoulder. You may proceed.”

Tony reached his hands out for Loki’s left shoulder, and with a “Brace yourself,” cajoled the joint back to rights with barely a pause. Loki hissed, his eyes snapping fire, and Tony paused for a moment. Since the god did not appear inclined to kill or dismember him yet, he went ahead and repeated the procedure on the other shoulder. Loki was better prepared this time, the only sign of his discomfort the tight line of his lips and the stiffening of his face. 

“What next, Bambi?” The Trickster rolled his eyes at Tony.

Loki prattled off his list of ails and Tony did his best to put Loki’s joints back to rights quickly, not pausing to give the god time to fully register the pain. However, it was still a slow process. There was a satisfying grind and crunch with each re-positioning. Tony tried not to enjoy the god’s discomfort too much. Finally, the god held out his hands, on which a few fingers projected at odd angles, and Tony wasn’t very surprised when a foot was raised imperiously after Tony finished working on Loki’s hands. 

After pushing the last toe back into place, Tony stood and grabbed the scotch he’d poured for himself earlier and shoved it into the god’s hands. 

“Drink that down, it’ll help.” 

Loki tutted. “Finally giving me that drink, Stark? What perseverance.” He gulped down the scotch in one go, his mouth barely twisting at the sting of it. Tony belatedly remembered the cuts on (and probably in) the god’s mouth, as well as those through it, and inwardly cringed. 

“What can I say, I like to make good on my offers.” Tony walked back to the bar, grabbing another tumbler and the rest of the bottle of scotch and bringing them over to the coffee table in front of the sofa. He poured himself a drink, turning to raise an eyebrow at Loki. The god handed over his glass and sighed blissfully when it was handed back to him full. Tony sat at the opposite end of the sofa, sipping his scotch while he turned expectantly to his guest.

Said guest sighed again, this time clearly in irritation.

“I cannot be completely stripped of my magic because my magic is a part of my very essence. To separate it from my physical form entirely would kill me and only a very few beings exist that are powerful enough to accomplish such. The best the All-father could hope to do was to siphon off every bit of excess that I produce, to leave me with just the barest modicum of my power. In other words, to use what magic is available to me would tax my body greatly, perhaps even kill me if I overextend myself. The more magic I wield, the greater the toll exacted from my flesh.” He paused, pinning an assessing glance on Tony who nodded for him to continue. Loki made a gesture and suddenly an obsidian dagger appeared from the ether. “I managed to keep this near my person, undetected, during my stay in the All-Father's dungeons. It enabled me to siphon what magic I could physically tolerate parting with into it to be stored. It took a toll on my health, and took far longer than I would have liked, but it allowed for my escape.”

Tony hummed in consideration. “And just when, exactly, did you escape?”

Loki glared daggers at him, huffed, and then answered anyway. “Tonight; I would think that obvious, Stark, especially to someone so generally renowned for their intellect.”

Tony ignored the insult. “Then how did you save me?”

Loki sipped languidly at his scotch. “I used up precious much of my stores of magic to assist you from my dungeon cell. Were it not for protecting your pitiful mortal body, I would have escaped ages ago. It is no small amount of magic that is required to be worked at such a distance.”

Oh, did Tony ever not like the sound of where this was going.

“You owe me, Stark. And you will give me what I am due.”

“I don’t know that I would go so far as saying I owe you… you did pull the whole defenestration bit on me. Humans can die from being thrown out of windows, you know. You also tried to conquer the earth and almost got New York, and me, blown up. Besides. How the fuck did you know I was in danger to begin with?”

The god’s glare was murderous. But he didn’t move. “To begin, I have saved you twice now, which is enough to make up for two unsuccessful attempts on your life. I might add that the bomb, also, was not my doing. It was your government’s, and as such, brings the toll down to one attempt. The rest of what you mentioned was not personal damage to you, thus it hardly counts.” There was something else, something Loki wasn’t saying, Tony could tell. He could also tell that the Asgardian desperately wanted to let it slip. His control of his own tongue, however, was impeccable. Were Tony not well practiced at the art of deception himself, he probably would not have even picked up on it, Loki was so good at bending the truth. “As for the how of my knowing, it seems that leaving a bit of my magic in the device that was in your chest, however unintentionally I did so, gave me a bit of a window into your mind. It wasn’t active until the majority of my magic was stripped of me and my body scrambled for any pittance of it that could be located. As to why it would work after the device’s removal... I can only assume that the magic was absorbed into your body, or at least some frisson of it. Thus, when you were in danger, I was able to sense it, even if you could not.”

“So what exactly is it that you want, Loki? Also, just eww. You’ve been peeping on me all of this time? That’s fucking creepy.” Tony affected unconcern and childishness, pouring himself more scotch.

“I merely wish to rest here, uninterrupted, until I’ve had time to replenish my health and my magic. You would, of course, tell no one of the arrangement. Perhaps I might even be persuaded to grant you a favor, at some later junction.” The god put forth his proposition like it was the most reasonable thing in the world. That, more than anything, had Tony on edge. “Surely you’re still curious as to why I would meddle in your affairs, out of all of the enemies I could have turned to.” Loki knew he had Tony there, Tony would give him credit where it was due. 

“And how do I know you won’t try to conquer the earth again or destroy it or some shit?” Tony considered for a minute. “I don’t want you in my fucking head anymore, either, even if you did save my ass.”

Loki bridged his fingers together below his chin. “I have no want or need to conquer your pathetic backwater of a planet, human, let alone destroy it. As for the magic that resides in you… I do not have the ability to strip it from you with my powers bound as they are, and even were they not… I suspect it may have changed, somehow, by residing in your technology and your body. Thus, I can merely attempt to block your presence from myself, but you should be aware that it will still linger in my subconscious mind. There is nothing I can do to alter that, so long as the magic is inside of you. But if it eases your conscience, I will waste more of what precious little magic I have currently to reassure you of the fate of your people and your planet.” Loki rolled his eyes and magicked a parchment and quill into the air. “Once a sorcerer strikes a deal with another party, if it is signed in blood, the agreement is binding.” He handed the parchment to Tony, along with the magic quill. “Write the terms we have discussed in your own hand, and then we shall both sign.” Loki’s eerily green eyes locked with Tony’s, challenging.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/post/62411490431/do-you-like-what-you-see-a-favor-owed-by  
> My artist told me she "painted Loki like one of your French girls, assuming you like your French girls being put through a meat grinder."


	5. A Deal with the Devil

Tony flinched. God, aliens were apparently devastating for his poker face. He hadn’t been this obvious since he’d outgrown his acne as a teenager. He couldn’t even bring himself to feel too ashamed. He reached out and took the paper from the god, who was ominously examining that obsidian dagger. Tony read aloud as he started to write. Good god, he knew this decision was going to come back to bite him in the ass. Probably sooner rather than later. 

This was almost certainly the worst idea he’d ever had, and that was saying something. He felt like he was literally signing his soul over to Satan. He might be signing his goddamn life over to the God of Chaos, Mischief, and Lies, and for what? His fucking curiosity and a misplaced sense of empathy? But then, his life had been pretty fucking dull lately, assassination attempts and rescue via pagan Norse deity aside. What did he have to lose? Probably quite a bit, but a good deal less than he would have the last time he ran into Loki. And he was fucking curious. The god was up to something, and Tony wanted to know exactly what that something was. The only way he saw to find out was to play along with the bag of cats sitting in front of him.

“I, Anthony Edward Stark, hereby vow to Loki,” here he paused and lifted an eyebrow.

“Son of none,” his guest uttered, nonplussed. 

After that, there was a copious amount of haggling over the exact terms of the agreement. Once they had fleshed out some acceptable terms, Tony tried to pick and parse apart the wording each of them used, searching for any way it could be turned against him. He knew the Trickster was doing the same. Ultimately, he didn’t think either of them was entirely satisfied. He knew Loki would eventually find some loophole he’d overlooked, if he hadn’t already, and that the god was equally wary of him doing the same. But finally they agreed that there was no sense in arguing over the semantics any further.

“I, Anthony Edward Stark, hereby vow to Loki, son of none, Trickster and God of Mischief, Chaos, and Lies, to give my silence and what shelter I can offer in exchange for his vow not to harm or kill any humans, unless under threat to his life, and to not attempt to conquer or destroy Earth.” When he finished, Loki rolled his eyes and snatched the parchment back. 

“I, Loki, Trickster and God of Mischief, Chaos, and Lies, hereby vow to not harm or kill any Midgardians, unless under threat to my own life, and to not attempt to conquer or destroy Midgard during my residence there should Anthony Edward Stark provide me with his silence and shelter.” Here, Loki brought the dagger to his palm, dragging it swiftly across it and leaving a shallow gash. He then dipped the quill in it and signed his monikers in deep red on the parchment. He turned to Tony, his lips quirked into an irritating smirk as he held out both dagger and quill. 

Tony cringed. “Ew. Just ew. Shouldn’t we sanitize those, or use new equipment or something?” At Loki’s unimpressed expression, Tony continued his babbling. “Seriously, don’t you Asgardians get diseases? I don’t want to get some weird STD or some shit from gunking my blood up with yours.” The god rolled his eyes.

“We’re called gods for a reason, Stark. Do you really imagine we fall prey to your mortal illnesses? Granted, there are certain ills that do on occasion plague us, but I assure you they are more than noticeable, even for someone of your questionable powers of observation.” 

“Fucking. Hell.” Tony picked up the dagger and sliced his palm with a grimace, quickly snatching the quill and coating it. He then scrawled Anthony Edward Stark below Loki’s own script. Loki snapped his fingers and the dagger and quill disappeared. Then, the parchment pulsed, the blood on it glowing, and vanished as well.

“Was that supposed to disappear? Because I’m really not comfortable with that disappearing.” As he eyed Loki, he noticed the god was shaking subtly and looked several shades paler after the fancy magic tricks. 

“Relax, Anthony. It is safe. I cannot ignore it now that the magic has acted upon it, regardless of where it may be. Now,” he stood and stretched, “show me to my quarters. I should like to bathe, clean and bandage my wounds, and have fresh garments.” 

Tony hummed softly. “Well, Prancer, I think the safest place for you to be is my room. I’ll do my best to keep any visitors away from the Tower while you’re here, but if I can’t fend them off, you’re more likely to not be discovered in there than in any of the guest rooms in the Tower. After all, there’s only one guest room in the pent house, if someone does show up, and the ones on the other floors are still being furnished. Which means, much as I know we both hate it, we’ll be bunking together. At least, on the rare occasion that I need sleep. Don’t worry, that doesn’t happen often, and I hide away in my lab most of the time, anyway. Though, less, nowadays.” Tony paused, catching the way Loki’s eyes narrowed in displeasure, then continued. “Pepper is the only one that ever would have barged into my room, and that’s not something either of us needs to worry about now.”

The god nodded, grudgingly. “I suppose your argument makes sense. However, I request that if we must share space, we do not share a bed.”

“Sorry, Rapunzel. There’s only one bed. Don’t worry, I’m not too keen on sleeping with you either, silver tongue or no.”

“Then you may sleep on the floor for all I care. Surely with all of that money of yours, you can purchase a cot for yourself.” 

This time, it was Tony who rolled his eyes. “Fine, for all I know, you could be a cuddler. I don’t do cuddling. Especially not with aliens with the mental setting of ‘bag of cats.’” He stood and walked over to open the door to his room, revealing his California king size bed and the rest of the modern but lavish furnishings. “Your quarters, your Majesty.” The glare Loki shot at him nearly made him squirm. Nearly. Tony went and opened the door to the bathroom, then pulled the first aid kit from the cabinet and set it on the marble counter. He next threw open the door to his walk in closet and pulled out a worn Megadeth t-shirt, a pair of absurd red silk boxers, his Iron Man pajama bottoms, and the gag gift Hulk bathrobe Bruce had recently sent him. He came back out and placed the heap of clothes on the bed.

“I set out a first aid kit on the sink in the bathroom. There’s soap, shampoo, body wash, conditioner, all of that sort of crap already in the shower. If you need a toothbrush, razor, lotion, or deodorant, there’s some unopened in the cabinet under the sink, I think. You saw me put your clothes on the bed. If you need anything else, you can just ask JARVIS, or ask JARVIS to ask me.”

He saw a hint of confusion on Loki’s face. “JARVIS?”

“Just a Really Very Intelligent System, sir,” the AI spoke. Tony snickered at the consternation on Loki’s face. “Pleased to make your acquaintance again. I am glad to find you in better health and humor than when you left us.” Tony was fighting back full blown laughter at this point.

“JARVIS is, essentially, very advanced artificial intelligence. A computer.”

“Another of your creations?” At Tony’s nod, Loki hummed under his breath. “Fascinating. It is, I’m sure, a pleasure to meet you as well, JARVIS.” Loki hesitated slightly as he spoke the strange name. 

“Oh yeah, what do crazy space gods eat?” Loki didn’t even deign him with a response this time.


	6. A Most Unusual Sleepover

“JARVIS?” Loki didn’t like the note of uncertainty in his voice as he spoke… in the general direction of the ceiling. 

“Yes, sir Lie-Smith?” Loki still couldn’t quite determine where the voice came from, but at least it was more inclined to politeness than its creator. Interesting that the machine had chosen that, of all his monikers. 

“Could you instruct me on how to operate this… apparatus?” He gestured at the shower. “It is unlike the bathing facilities I have used up until now.” 

The AI walked him through adjusting the knobs on the shower and he managed to turn on the water, brought it to a pleasantly warm temperature, and manipulated the spigot from which the water was channeled to make the flow softer on his damaged skin. He used the products in the “shower,” cringing when he realized he would be wearing the same scents as his host. At least, he supposed, said host had fairly acceptable taste, for a human. 

He cleaned his wounds slowly, careful and thorough, as his body was trembling slightly in protest of its recent poor treatment and expenditures of energy. By the end he’d broken out in a cold sweat, his jaw clenched and breath huffing harshly out through his nose. He took a moment to compose himself and then walked to retrieve the garments that Stark had laid out for him on the bed only to immediately cringe at the absurd combination of colors that assaulted him. He had no idea what “Megadeth” was, but of the components of the outfit, it was the least concerning. He scowled at the miniature patterns of Iron Man and the Hulk. 

 

Tony had no idea what to feed starving gods, but he assumed that starting them out on waffles (his specialty, and one of the few edible things he knew how to make) was not the wisest course of action. It was a bit late for delivery, but he figured he could bribe one of the restaurants he frequented into making an exception. Hmm. What would the snobby Asgardian like? Traditional Japanese cuisine might not insult him overly much. Tony was definitely a fan of udon, himself, and liquids were generally considered a good idea for invalids, right? Of course, Loki wasn’t exactly an invalid, but hey, he’d work with what parallels he could get. 

As he placed the order for the food, he plotted on how he’d trick the Trickster into eating pop-tarts once he was safe for junk food. He smirked as he imagined the god’s reaction. He sincerely doubted Loki would be as impressed by the “Tarts of Popping” as his foster brother. It was ungodly –ha, ungodly- how many pop-tarts Tony had seen Thor wolf down. 

 

Tony had just stepped back into the penthouse from the elevator, plastic bags containing boxes of Japanese food in his hands, when Loki stepped out of the bedroom. The picture the god made in the tacky, bright and mismatched outfit Tony had selected, his mane of long, coal black hair a mess of unruly curls and his feet shoved contrarily into Tony’s favorite pair of house-slippers that he had apparently commandeered, was certainly… something. Something very disconcerting and very not the Loki that Tony knew and was trying really hard to remember and cement into his brain right now. Tony hadn’t actually expected Loki to put on the outrageous getup. Yeah, yeah… mostly worth it, but bad idea Tony.

Loki gave an exaggerated roll of his eyes at the mortal that was staring at him in a rather confounded manner, frozen in place right in front of the metal box… elevator… he’d just stepped out of, some manner of baggage in hand. No, not baggage… food. The delicious aroma assaulted him and made him nearly sway on his feet. It wasn’t the scent of any cuisine he recognized, which wasn’t surprising, but dear gods… his stomach audibly growled, and Loki redirected his glare toward the cantankerous organ.

Tony’s stupor had apparently been broken, as he then swept past Loki and into a room that was all tile, spotless counters, and metallic surfaces. Tony set the bags out on the small island in the center of the very modern kitchen and began pulling containers of food from them. He took the lid off of one of the bowl shaped containers and pushed it to the other side of the island, motioning for Loki to sit down. He then removed the lid from his own bowl and turned to pluck strangely shaped spoons from a drawer in the counter behind him. Loki hesitated, glancing between the Avenger, the strange combination of broth and noodles, and the chair, then sat. Tony joined him. 

“This is Japanese food from one of the best places I’ve found in the area. I got us both udon since I didn’t know what you would like, and considering I don’t think you’ve really been eating much lately, it seemed like the safest bet. I hope it’s not too offensive to your royal taste buds.” 

Tony offered Loki one of the spoons, his fingers brushing Loki’s as the other man reached to take it from him. Loki had a decisively bored expression on his face but Tony noticed the way his eyes shifted away when their fingers brushed, like he was uncomfortable with even the most minimal human contact, and the way he subtly eyed the udon in front of him like it was filet mignon and not beef broth and noodles. Tony decided to go ahead and tuck into his own soup and discreetly watched as Loki tentatively handled the Japanese soup spoon and slowly put it into his bowl. Tony fished in the bags the food had come in and drew out two pairs of chop sticks, opening them and snapping them apart, then handed one set to Loki who eyed them dubiously. Tony quirked an eyebrow.

“It goes a lot more smoothly if you use the chop sticks to twine the noodles around and the spoon for the broth.” He gripped his own chop sticks and showed Loki the way he was holding them, then proceeded to twirl a small portion of the noodles deftly around them and brought them to his mouth. Perhaps it was a tad cruel to not offer Loki a fork instead of the chop sticks for what was probably the first decent meal he’d eaten since his attack on Manhattan, but he didn’t think the god would be happy if Tony in any way tried to coddle him, anyway. 

He watched the god clumsily take his first bite of noodles with the chop sticks, a flash of irritation and stubborn determination flitting across his features so quickly Tony almost didn’t catch it. He attempted to eat the dish unhurriedly but soon enough he was as close to scarfing down the noodles and broth as his chop stick skills and pride would allow.

Loki ate every last bit of his dinner. Tony finished not long after (after all, regular meals weren’t exactly his thing, so he did try to eat at least a full meal when he remembered to eat). The Asgardian was looking a little green around the gills, which Tony had figured would happen since he hadn’t exactly paced himself in his consumption of his meal. Tony fished through the cabinets for some anti-nausea medication and snagged a spoon out of the drawer. He poured the cherry red liquid into the spoon, then turned to face Loki. 

“So how do you feel about cherry, Rudolph?”

When the god opened his mouth to respond, Tony popped the spoon into it, put a hand under Loki’s chin to close it, and watched as he swallowed reflexively in surprise before he removed his hand and pulled the spoon back out of Loki’s mouth. The god sputtered. Tony quickly grabbed a ginger ale out of the refrigerator, twisted open the top, and handed it to the Trickster. 

“Sip on that, it’ll help get rid of the flavor. It’ll also help your stomach.”

Loki shot him a murderous glare but took the bottle and sipped at it a bit desperately. 

“What in the Nine was that?” the god spat at him after he had evidently cleared enough of the sickeningly artificial cherry flavor from his mouth.

“Anti-nausea medication. You looked like you could use it. I figured the last thing you needed was to toss your cookies right now, before you’ve rested or healed at all, much less before you even got around to digesting what you just ate. You’re going to need that for the healing bit, I’d assume.” 

Loki’s glare eased a bit, but only just. 

“Never take such liberty with my person again, Stark.” He sighed, then grudgingly bit out, “Thank you. I believe I will now retire for the night. Do not disturb me when, or if, you decide to sleep.” With that, he turned and slunk gracefully through the penthouse to Tony’s bedroom.

 

Tony trudged down to his lab to tinker some more with his new project. Naturally, he got wrapped up in it, and the next time he looked at a clock it was nearly five a.m. He showered in the small bathroom in his lab, so as not to wake the princess sleeping upstairs in his bed, then rode the elevator up to the penthouse and trudged exhausted into his room. In the dark, he still managed to see the pile of gaudy clothing tossed on the floor by the bed. Dear gods, he hoped Loki wasn’t sleeping in the buff. Seeing Loki in boxers was going to be bad enough for his mental health. And his blood pressure. He made a pallet for himself on the floor on the far side of the bed from where Loki was sleeping as quietly as he could. The god appeared to slumber like the dead, however, and didn’t twitch a muscle the entire time. Tony would almost worry, were it not for the fact that he could hear the soft exhale of Loki’s breath. He tried to reassure himself that his worry was over how he would explain a dead God of Mischief in his bed and not actually out of concern for said god.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/post/62698885347/one-last-very-overdue-piece-for-a-favor-owed-by  
> Here is Loki looking absolutely fabulous while eating udon. Have I mentioned how much I love my artist?


	7. Sleeping Beauty

When Tony woke the next morning, Loki was still solidly unconscious, so Tony slipped from the room as silently as he could manage. He went down to his lab, Dum-E whirring excitedly as he entered and rolling toward him. Tony fondly patted the machine. He cast a slightly wary eye about in search of Butter Fingers and U, who seemed content to behave in their own corners of the lab for the moment, and relaxed marginally.

“Dum-E, be a good little 'bot and go fix me some coffee?” He watched the machine roll away happily and added, “JARVIS, make sure I get my coffee without any unfortunate incidents?”

“Certainly, sir. He has managed this task without incident the last three times you have commanded him to do it, so perhaps we have finally found his calling.” Tony chuckled. He swore he never programmed in that sass. But, surprising both JARVIS and himself, Dum-E whirred back into the room a few minutes later, proudly carrying a steaming cup of heaven. 

“Jarv?” Tony’s voice was a bit high pitched. 

“Everything is in order, sir.” Tony wondered what parallel universe he’d somehow gotten sucked into. There was an alien god of mischief in his bed that he wasn’t sleeping with and Dum-E hadn’t ended up spraying down the coffee pot with the fire extinguisher. 

Tony kept pouring over the footage of Loki’s last visit to earth, searching for something, anything, to explain this feeling he just couldn’t shake that he was missing some piece of the puzzle. His genius level intellect and sharp eyes refused to give him the answers, however, and hours and pots of coffee later he wandered back upstairs. There was no sign of the Trickster in the penthouse proper, so he tiptoed over to the door to his room, finding it still closed. He carefully opened it and peeked inside. Loki’s lean form was uncannily still as he slept and he had barely moved since Tony had left the room previously other than to kick off the sheets and comforter… oh gods. Tony was fucking lucky the god was sleeping sprawled out on his stomach because Loki definitely slept in the buff. He couldn’t keep his eyes from traveling across the pale expanse of skin and silken hair that was sprawled over his sheets. He shook himself, turning on his heel and hastily leaving the room.

 

Loki slept solidly through another two days. Tony had been debating whether or not to wake the god the night before, to make sure that in his weakened state he wouldn’t die of dehydration or something, and decided to make an attempt to wake him the next morning. But when Tony opened his eyes, pulled from his slumber at some ungodly bright hour of the morning, it was to see sharp green eyes gazing at him from above.

He hummed lightly in appreciation as he stretched while the fog of sleep still hung in his mind, then jumped with a curse as he realized just who those gorgeous orbs and porcelain skin belonged to. Loki chuckled, his voice a pleasant and scratchy rumble still from sleep. As Loki sat up Tony’s eyes widened and he turned, flailing his hand in the general direction of where Loki’s discarded pajamas lay on the other side of the room.

“Put on some goddamn clothes, yeesh.” Tony dared a quick glance back at the god, who raised an eyebrow and pointedly looked at Tony’s own attire. Tony muttered and grabbed the wife-beater he’d thrown beside of the cot the night before, tugging it over his head. Loki unhurriedly moved about the room and when Tony turned around again, this time he was at least clothed in the ridiculous red boxers and the Hulk bathrobe. 

“I hardly thought you modest, Stark.” Okay, this time Loki had to be pulling the whole sultry growl thing on purpose. 

“Yeah, well, I generally prefer to keep the clothes on when shacking up with someone who’s defenestrated me.” 

Loki rolled his eyes. “At any rate, Stark, I require breakfast of you, and a set of clothing that is not nearly so absurd. I expect that after that, I shall be sufficiently able to take my leave of here.” 

“Here, as in my tower, or here, as in earth?” 

Loki tutted. “Why, pray tell, would you think I’d like to clarify?”

“Fine then, play it that way.” Tony stood and walked toward the door. “I think I have the perfect breakfast for you.” 

 

Tony handed Loki the cupcake flavored Pop-Tarts and watched as the Asgardian turned his nose up at the packaging. He looked suspiciously at Tony, who ripped open the packaging on his own frozen pair of tarts and took a large bite with a grin. Loki followed suit and his eyes widened in what looked like both horror and appreciation.

Ah, he liked them, then. God, he bet that just ate at Loki, especially considering how obviously cheap the food was and even more so taking into consideration Loki’s impeccably good taste. However, his house-guest finished his breakfast without complaint, though he did sneer in Tony’s direction once he finished.

“Is this the customary fare for a billionaire on Midgard?”

“Awh, Lokey-Dokey, don’t be mean. You know you liked them.”

The look on the god’s face was absolutely murderous. “Stark, if you ever butcher my name in such a way again, I swear I will gut you and feed you your own entrails.” Loki stood. “Now, it is time I took my leave of you.” He didn’t look overly sad about it; quite the opposite in fact.

“Awh, I love you, too, honey! Have a nice day at work.” The god disappeared as Tony finished the statement, a fierce scowl contorting his features.


	8. Lyell Smith

Tony woke in his lab with a groan. He’d stayed awake for several days in a row after Loki left, after his initial attempt at sleeping had resulted in nightmares about Afghanistan and wormholes. But it was not the poor care he’d been taking of his body that made him groan, nor the bright fluorescent lighting in the lab. It was the throbbing erection that was tenting the sheets at his hips. Since Pepper had left, he’d generally ignored his morning wood when he actually managed to get a night’s sleep, other than the occasional instance where it absolutely refused to be ignored. Then, he’d dispassionately jerk himself off, the activity a chore instead of the mildly pleasant experience it should have been.

He could tell already that this was one of those occasions where he was going to have to take care of business before he could comfortably go on with his day. He reached to fist one hand around his cock, grip loose at first, but tightening as he began to pump his length. As his hand moved more quickly up and down his shaft, fingers tightening even more around the sensitive flesh, he reached to cup his balls with his other hand. He kneaded them softly as he kept up his ministrations to his straining erection. He could feel precome starting to coat the tip of his cock, the slide of his hand becoming slippery as he carefully twisted his palm across the head with each stroke. When he felt the pressure beginning to build in his balls, his eyes now screwed tightly shut, the memory of absurdly green eyes had his breath hitching, and he was coming. The orgasm ripped through him, hot jets of semen splattering across his stomach, and he was left dazed.

“Ohshit.”

 

Pepper walked hesitantly into Tony’s penthouse. She hadn’t been back since the breakup, but Tony hadn’t shown his face all week and was ignoring her calls, too. The paperwork was really starting to pile up and she needed to get on his case about the meetings he had missed as well as those he still needed to attend, not to mention she was worried. It tended to never bode well when Tony disappeared. It was especially concerning in light of the recent attempts on his life, even without the other changes they’d both been going through since the Mandarin had come into their lives. 

She was quite startled when, stepping off of the elevator, she noticed a stunning redheaded man reclining on Tony’s sofa, a thick tome resting across his knees as he read. He looked up curiously as the doors of the elevator closed, his brilliant green eyes widening slightly as they spotted her in surprise. 

She smiled apologetically, inwardly feeling a mixture of emotions, but the predominant one was relief. She stepped forward and held out her hand as he set aside his book and stood. “Hello, I’m Pepper Potts, Tony’s CEO. I apologize for intruding; I didn’t know Tony had company. He’s been studiously avoiding his work for a while now, though, and I really needed to come bother him.” 

He shot her a sympathetic look. “It’s no intrusion at all, Ms. Potts. Had I but known Anthony had been avoiding his work, I would have harangued him as well. He needs it, more often than not.” They both chuckled. “I am Lyell. Lyell Smith. It’s a pleasure to meet you, finally, Ms. Potts.”

 

Loki found himself surprisingly enjoying his conversation with Tony’s former assistant, now CEO. She was sharp, and certainly told lots of entertaining stories of the billionaire. She’d near immediately relaxed in his presence since she had assumed by his nonchalant manner in Anthony’s personal living quarters that he had not only slept with Anthony, but was Anthony’s new lover. He had started a pot of coffee brewing in the kitchen and they were now both enjoying mugs of the steaming beverage. 

When he heard the soft swish of the elevator doors opening, he turned and reached for another mug and poured a third coffee. Pepper smiled at the gesture. When Tony stumbled into the kitchen, looking suspiciously between its two occupants, Loki sidled up to him and pressed the mug into Tony’s surprised hands. He stood close, leaning into the inventor.

 

Later, after Tony had showered and given himself a very stern internal lecture, he stepped out of the elevator into the main room of the penthouse. He was surprised to hear voices coming from the direction of the kitchen. He easily recognized one as Pepper and the other voice was male and quite posh. The "stranger’s" voice was sultry, charming, and self-assured. He groaned inwardly, knowing almost immediately who his mystery guest must be, and wondering how the fuck he’d gotten past Tony’s new alarm system. As he rounded the corner into the kitchen, he caught sight of a tall, slender man with unruly, dark auburn curls falling softly to just below his jaw dressed in an elegant and fitted knit dove gray sweater and black slacks. His features were very similar to those of his natural form, altered just enough that he couldn’t be mistaken for… well, himself. His tinkling laugh was still rife with mischief and, when he glanced in Tony’s direction, his eyes were still that damnably luminescent green that Tony wanted to forget.

He watched as Loki sauntered over to him and wrapped his hands around the cup that was extended to him as the Asgardian stood curled into his side. 

Pepper had turned her gaze to follow Loki and smiled, genuinely, upon seeing Tony. After he took a deceptively calm sip of his coffee, she walked over and swatted him on the arm.

“Why have you been hiding your lovely friend here away from everyone, Tony?” Her voice was playful and the way she said friend definitely insinuated something more. Tony’s heart stuttered as he picked up on the obvious implication and Loki’s clear mirth at having led her to the assumptions she was making. Oh god, there was no way he could get out of playing along with this. Tony Stark didn’t just let strange men lounge about in his penthouse unattended.

“Oh, I’ve hardly been hiding him, Pepper. Don’t let him fool you, he’s actually quite shy.” Tony grinned shamelessly as the god rolled his eyes. 

“Oh, never mind that. How did you two meet?” Tony nearly choked on his coffee as Loki wrapped an arm casually around his waist. 

“Well, I’m afraid I might have quite thoroughly pissed Anthony off when first we met. To be certain, he had a similar effect on myself at the time. We met at gala overseas some time ago and got into a bit of a heated argument about the way we thought the country should be governed.” Tony quirked a bit of a grin at that. It wasn’t exactly a lie. 

“When I bumped into him some time later, I felt I needed to show some bit of remorse at how I comported myself that evening and Tony felt likewise inclined. So we then argued about who should purchase drinks for whom at the next gala we spotted each other at and I managed to cover the tab when he was distracted and slip away.”

“Of course, after that, I just had to attempt to track him down, if only to even the score.” At Tony’s inclusion, Pepper huffed a laugh. The Trickster’s hand stroked lightly over his back.

“Eventually, I grew tired of his trying to track me down and decided to meet him for coffee. That time, I let him pay. I believe he found he didn’t want to give up arguing with me just yet, however, as he asked me to come work with him on a little project of his.” Loki’s lips brushed lightly over his cheek and Tony nearly jumped out of his skin, but he managed to cover it with another large gulp of coffee. 

Pepper looked suspiciously pleased with the situation in general and Tony definitely wasn’t a fan of that. When he spotted the mound of paperwork she had piled onto his kitchen table and saw that look in her eyes that meant a lengthy scolding and lots of groveling and attending boring board meetings to make up for his bad behavior, Tony was, needless to say, quite distinctly displeased in fact. Loki’s obvious mirth over the situation certainly didn’t help.

Eventually Pepper had her fill of scolding him and extracting promises and left the “couple” with what looked suspiciously like a twinkle in her eye. Once the elevator doors had closed behind her, Tony rounded on his resident God of Mischief.

“What in the bloody hell were you thinking, letting her see you here, and how did you not set off the alarm this time?”

Green eyes narrowed in warning as Loki dropped his disguise. “What, are you upset Stark, that I let your precious Pepper think you’d gone and found yourself someone new? As for your alarm, it was quite simple to disable it once I knew of its existence.”

Tony spluttered. “For one, you and I are not an item, we’re reluctant business partners in the sense that you blackmail me, I blackmail you, and we interact in the overlap. For another, did it never occur to you that Tony Stark having a lover is a nearly unheard of occurrence and one that will be widely public knowledge if anyone even so much as thinks it’s a possibility? How is it good for us to have people interested in you, no matter who you’re dressed up to look like at present?” He paused. “And don’t touch my things. I don’t like it when people touch my things.” Yeah, sure, he should have known Loki would make short work of ruining his alarm, but he still put a lot of effort into that shit.

Loki walked up to him, suspiciously calm, and wrapped a hand around his throat applying just the barest pressure. “You would do well to remember who you’re speaking to, Stark. I’ve lived millennia and seen things your pitiful human mind cannot begin to fathom. I have brought down empires, felled gods and kings. Do not even think of questioning me.”

Tony scoffed, not deigning to attempt to peel the fingers off of his throat, knowing it would do no good with Loki’s strength and that the attempt would only amuse the god. “Then why is it you need my pitiful human mind and my pitiful human resources?”

Loki snarled, shoving Tony back into the wall and crowding into his space. “You, I don’t need. You are a broken thing with no purpose save to wallow in its own self pity. I needed the Anthony Stark that built the Iron Man and War Machine armors and piloted those armors himself. I needed the Anthony Stark that was willing to dive into a wormhole filled with hostile aliens with magics he did not understand, taking a bomb with him. I have no need of you. You are ruin, even more so than myself.”

Tony’s eyes were blazing and his own hand came up to grip Loki’s throat. The god only laughed in response. “Then why. Are. You. Still. Here.” Tony spat the words.

The morbid humor in Loki’s eyes died and all that was left was disappointment and simmering anger. “I had hoped you were not yet a lost cause, but it appears you need an excuse to live up to your own potential. That being the case, I will give it to you.”

Before Tony could react, Loki’s hand plunged into the center of his chest, directly through the healing scar tissue. He hitched out a strangled gasp at the agony that poured through him as the god’s eyes lit with a twisted pleasure and he curled his hand inside of Tony’s chest. Tony could only stare on in horror as the green flames of Loki’s magic poured from his hand into Tony and the agony built itself higher and higher inside of him. When the god finally retracted his hand, Tony collapsed onto the floor of the penthouse, gasping for air. When he found the strength to look down at himself, he could see the metallic ring which used to house the arc reactor back inside of his chest. It was empty, no hum of the electromagnet filling him, and he could feel the terror that came with knowing, absolutely knowing that the shrapnel was embedded in his chest once more and nothing was stopping it from working its way closer to his heart.

He looked up at Loki in horror. The god’s face was grim but there was an affected glint of amusement on his features. He looked pale and drawn but, with a twist of his fingers, he magicked the arc reactor’s core into his palm and looked at Tony, quirking one brow. 

“I’m sure you’ve noted that the shrapnel is returned to its rightful place in your thoracic cavity. Now, what remains to be seen is if you are worthy of my placing this item you so hastily discarded into the ocean back inside of its nook in your chest. Be grateful for small mercies. I had thought to let you fend for yourself and build one anew.” 

“Bite me, you son of a bitch.” Tony managed to gasp out the words, pouring everything he had into trying to prevent the panic attack he felt looming.

Loki tutted. “All in good time, Stark.” He walked over to Tony, kneeling in front of him. Tony flinched back from him and saw what looked like hurt flash briefly across the god’s features before it was masked with that careful amusement again. He inserted his fingers with the core into the chasm in Tony’s chest, connecting the wires and turning it just so. It fit into place with a final snick. Tony could feel and see the final pulse of Loki’s magic seep into the metal and with a hum the arc reactor jumped back to life.

At the same time Loki’s face blanched and the god tumbled to the floor unconscious. Despite Loki having just literally ripped a hole in his chest, Tony felt an unnerving urge to ascertain that the God of Mischief was alright before his own eyes slipped closed and he fell into a very unmanly faint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/post/62412860040/mr-ginger-curls-smith-from-a-favor-owed-by  
> Might I present Lyell Smith?  
> http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/post/62411959299/i-had-hoped-you-were-not-yet-a-lost-cause-but-it  
> Loki, stop putting things where they don't belong (or do belong, as the case may be).


	9. Rescue

When consciousness caught up with Tony, he felt like he’d been hit by a truck. Actually, fuck getting hit by a truck; he imagined this was what it would feel like to have gone toe to toe with Thor without his suit. Hah. Which, if Thor ever found out about this strange deal Tony and the younger prince of Asgard had going, and especially about that dream that Tony was trying to forget, he might very well be able to make a realistic comparison very soon. 

As the thought of the Lie-Smith crossed his mind, the events leading to his little fainting spell came flooding back and he bit back a groan and opened his eyes, scanning the room for Loki. The god had apparently recovered himself after his intimidating and stupid display of power and was nowhere to be found. Which was just as well because now that Tony wasn’t worrying that the damned idiot had killed himself by draining too much of his magic, he felt like killing Loki. Slowly. And quite painfully.

He got up, wincing at the pain that wracked his body in protest of the movement. Worse than the murderous intent and rage he was currently experiencing was the confusion. Loki’s words left him baffled, and he had no idea what the god stood to gain from re-inflicting his injuries upon him, making him less than whole physically, as well as mentally, once more.

Later, once he could avoid it no longer, he called Pepper, plying her with excuses and fake illnesses and reasons he couldn’t possibly go out into public right now. Yes, Lyell was with him. Yes, Lyell would take care of him. No, he wouldn’t be stubborn and go down to his lab. He’d rest in bed and Pepper could bring by all of the paperwork and have it sent up. She shouldn’t come up; he didn’t want her to catch this bug. 

Of course, the excuses could only last for so long, but Loki had left him with one hell of a serious fucking problem. Everyone knew Tony Stark had the arc reactor and the shrapnel in his chest removed months ago. Everyone knew it had led to Tony Stark retiring as Iron Man, since getting the shrapnel was what had spurred him to go superhero in the first place. How the fuck was he supposed to explain away the fact that the same shrapnel and the same arc reactor that he’d thrown off of a cliff into the bottom of the ocean in Malibu to rest with the tattered remains of his mansion were nestled venomously back inside of his chest? And covering up that tell-tale nearly Tesseract-blue glow was going to be practically impossible.

No, anyone who found out that the arc reactor was back inside of him, powering the electromagnet again, would have some serious fucking questions and he had no good or believable bullshit that he could spout this time. No one shoved a cradle of metal back inside of their chest, willingly ripping it wide open. Besides the fact that alone he would be extremely unlikely to survive it, even Tony Fucking Stark wasn’t batshit enough to put himself through that kind of hell for jack shit. 

The only answer that anyone would be able to come up with would be him getting kidnapped and subjected to the reinsertion of the device, which made no goddamn sense… or magic. There was only one person Tony knew of with that kind of magic and who was the kind of batshit insane to subject Tony to what had just happened and leave him alive and breathing. If SHIELD already knew Loki had escaped from Asgard… gods help Tony when they found out about the arc reactor because he was a dead man.

For weeks, he heard and saw nothing of Loki. He waited, quite impatiently, for over a week for the god to return and explain himself. When his patience, or lack thereof, had finally had enough, Tony locked himself away in his lab yet again. His alcohol consumption, already outrageous, was beyond absurd at this point and he couldn’t remember the last time he slept or wasn’t cradling a bottle of scotch in one hand. When he’d wandered back into his lab he’d started working furiously and hadn’t stopped since. He hadn’t even paused to think about what it was that he was building… but now that it was finished? He was staring at the new suit in awe and horror. 

It was one of the best that he had ever made… if not certainly the best... but it was clearly not made for him. The suit was more slender, sleek, tapered. It wasn’t Tony's typical deep red and gold. It was red and silver and feminine in a way nothing he had ever designed before had been. 

He’d made this suit for Pepper.

 

After he’d seen the final result of the new suit and been faced with the reality of the purpose he’d designed it for, Tony had ended up crashing on his futon for a couple of days. When he woke again, he had an unreal number of missed calls and messages, as JARVIS was so kind as to inform him of. JARVIS played them all aloud. Most of them were from Pepper, but there was one from Bruce as well.

Tony felt a pang of guilt. He’d planned on making Stark Tower the Avengers' Tower after the Chitauri invasion. He’d never replaced the ST and RK for that reason. But when he’d given up Iron Man after taking down Killian and dealing with Extremis, Tony knew he had no business shacking up with the superheroes anymore. He’d withdrawn from the bonds he’d made during that battle, even the one he’d begun to forge with Bruce that he had so coveted. 

He missed them. It surprised him. Even Clint and Natasha, creepy assholes that they were. Maybe even Steve, though he’d never admit it aloud. At least the Capsicle was fun to pick on. 

Tony sighed. There was nothing he could do about the situation with the other Avengers, at least not now. He did, however, need to face Pepper and to give her the last thing that he was able to, because she deserved it. If she couldn’t have him and she couldn’t have Extremis, he could give her this. He’d given Rhodey and himself the same opportunity and gods knew Pepper would use it more wisely than either Iron Man or War Machine ever had. He would have to find some way to hide the arc reactor from her and some kind of explanation for where Loki was, answers for the questions he knew Pepper would have about him. 

 

When Pepper finally arrived, Tony had managed to plate his undershirt with a thin sheet of metal to disguise the glow of the arc reactor, his Black Sabbath t-shirt pulled sloppily over top of it. He waited for her in the lab and when she arrived, full of questions and censure for his lack of communication (other than loyally signing all of his paperwork and leaving it for her each day), he found himself at a loss as to how to reveal his gift to her.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Loki in his ginger guise leaning against the door to the lab. He looked nearly as haggard as the last time Tony had seen him, in that brief interim before he passed out. But more than that, the god’s expression looked hollow as he watched Pepper and Tony, all playfulness and cutting edge dulled. He turned back to Pepper.

“JARVIS, let’s show Pepper her early birthday present.”

“Certainly, sir. Might I wish you an early happy birthday, Ms. Potts?” As JARVIS spoke, the steel blinds over Tony’s newest work of art and metallurgy pulled back to reveal shimmering burgundy and silver. Pepper’s mouth dropped open and he could practically sense the resignation wafting over to him from Loki’s direction. 

Pepper seemed, for once, to be at a loss for words. She haltingly stepped forward, her arm reaching almost against her own volition to bring her fingers into contact with the metal of the face plate. As she did, the suit whirred into life, disassembling and then beginning to reassemble around Pepper’s form. She squeaked in surprise, then held absolutely still until the helmet had attached to the rest of the suit. Before the faceplate dropped down to hide her features, she whispered one word.

“Why?”

“Because you’re the real hero, Pepper. You’ve saved my life a million times and no matter what I do, I’ll never be able to repay you for that. In fact, so far, I’ve done quite the opposite. The world deserves a hero like you, Pepper, not a hero like me. But more than that, you deserve this.”

There were tears in Pepper’s eyes and after a moment, she gave him the most brilliant and genuine smile he’d ever seen on her face. She rushed forward to hug him and it was about then that she noticed Loki. She pulled back and her gaze turned concerned. 

“Mr. Smith, I didn’t know you were here! It’s good to see you again. Tony tells me you’ve been nursing him while he’s been ill. Considering he still appears to be in one piece, I have to commend you. He is the absolute worst patient.”

Loki gave a weary smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Please, call me Lyell. I’m certain there must be worse patients out there somewhere, surely. I’m not all that convinced I accomplished much nursing, however, considering I became ill myself. I must admit I’m not much more adept at playing patient than Anthony, either, my dear Ms. Potts.” 

“If I’m going to call you Lyell, please call me Pepper.” He nodded with a small quirk to his lips in acquiescence and her gaze roved, assessing, over him. “You poor dear, you look like you’re still under the weather. You should be upstairs resting.” 

“I’m nearly well. The illness itself seems to have abated, but I find my energy is still very much in absence. Don’t worry yourself, I shall return to bed shortly. I just had to see Anthony give you your gift. I knew it must mean a great deal to both of you.” Some of the twinkle had returned to Loki’s eyes as he spoke with Pepper. He seemed to like her in spite of himself. 

“JARVIS, could you disassemble the suit for me, please?” 

“But of course, Ms. Potts.” The suit folded away from Pepper much more quickly than it had encompassed her. As she stepped away from it, Tony came forward and snapped two beautifully crafted silver bracelets on her wrists.

“These are bracelets that will let you call the suit to you, like the ones I had for my suit. I tried to make them a tad prettier than the ones I made for myself.” Tony winked.

Pepper caressed them in awe. “They look like real jewelry.”

“No one will ever be able to tell what they are from their appearance, at least. You can fly it home today, by the way.” Pepper looked like a kid in a candy store. “I’ll call in and tell SHIELD that I’m working on something. What it might be is none of their business, though I expect they’ll figure it out eventually. They’ll probably harass you a bit, but not nearly as badly as they have me. I’ll keep them off of your tail for as long as I can, though.”

“Tony… thank you. I just… thank you.” She stepped away from him with another hug and headed toward Loki. “Come on, Lyell, let’s go get you settled back in bed. Tony looks like he could use some rest, too. For that matter, let me order you all some food before I leave. I’m sure you both could use it.” Tony watched in surprise as Loki allowed Pepper to steer him toward the elevator. He followed haltingly behind them. 

When they arrived upstairs, Tony turned to Pepper. “So, what are you going to call your suited up alter ego?”

“I think… I think I’ll call it Rescue.”

Tony scoffed. “Really? Rescue? Nothing bad-ass like War Machine or Iron Man?” Loki chuckled at Tony.

“Anthony, darling, not everyone feels the need to overcompensate for their physical attributes below the belt. I think Pepper is quite secure in her lack of masculinity, unlike yourself and Colonel Rhodes.”

Pepper guffawed as Tony’s jaw dropped in consternation. 

“On that note, I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone. JARVIS, could you order Tony and Lyell something suitable for their current state of health?” 

“Of course, Ms. Potts. Would Vietnamese Pho be suitable enough?”

“Perfect, JARVIS. Thank you.” She returned her attention to Loki. “It was lovely to see you again, Lyell.” 

“A pleasure as always, Pepper dear,” Loki returned with that same small, fond quirk of a smile.

“What, why are you two friends? Why is my ex-girlfriend helping my boyfriend make fun of me? Is this cosmic retribution for my being too amazing?”

Loki rolled his eyes as Pepper continued to chuckle, stepping out onto the landing strip and activating her bracelets. Then, the suit assembled and Pepper was taking off.

Tony turned slowly, reluctantly, toward Loki.

“Reindeer Games, you and I are going to have one hell of a serious conversation.”

The little bit of mirth that had crept into Loki’s eyes during Pepper’s visit drained and was replaced with wary resignation. 

“You will have your conversation, Stark, but first let me rest.” Tony wanted to press the issue, but the god’s obvious pallor held him back.

“Fine, Loki. We’ll both get some sleep. But you will be here when I wake up and we will talk about this.” Loki’s eyes narrowed at Tony’s demands, but he refrained from saying anything and trailed silently behind Tony into Tony’s bedroom, where they both retired to their separate beds after their food had arrived and they’d eaten a very silent dinner.


	10. The Lie-Smith Answers True

Tony awoke to ragged gasps and stifled screams. The sound had his heart nearly tearing out of his chest in response. He bolted upright and looked frantically about, only to spot the God of Mischief thrashing in his bed, pleas and whimpers falling from his lips as he held onto slumber in the midst of the night terror.

Tony was only all too familiar with what was happening in the Trickster’s dream space right then. He didn’t give himself time to reconsider before he was walking around to the opposite side of the bed, the one closest to Loki, and reaching down to lightly clasp a shoulder to attempt to wake him. The response that light touch instigated had him grabbed by the throat, flung over Loki and onto the bed with Loki pinning him.

He grasped frantically at the hand that was quickly cutting off his air supply. “Loki, wake up. WAKE THE FUCK UP.” He screamed the words as loudly as the hand around his throat and his lack of oxygen would allow, feeling a touch of dizziness set in after their expulsion.

Above him the god stilled, his eyes slowly blinking open and even more slowly registering what they were seeing. Once awareness crept into the daze that Loki’s dreams had left him in, he quickly released Tony’s throat, scooting as far away from him as possible. It was just in time, too, because Tony had begun to see flickering star-bursts of light at the edges of his vision and had known unconsciousness was near at hand. Once Tony had stopped gasping for air, he heard the unmistakable sound of someone hyperventilating and looked over at Loki in horror.

The God of Mischief was curled in on himself on the far corner of the bed, gasping for air, his fingers tangled tightly in the black locks of his hair. Tony slowly scooted over closer to him, reaching out a hand to brush over striking ebony curls. He curled in more tightly around the god as he stroked his hair, eventually easing the fingers Loki had tangled in it into letting go. When he wrapped his arms around Loki, the other man whimpered and leaned into the touch. 

Tony continued to caress Loki’s scalp and soothing nonsense was falling from his lips in the softest tone of voice he’d probably ever used. He didn’t even know what he was saying, he just kept up the hushed litany of words as he began to rock the god back and forth in his arms, one hand gently caressing a pale cheek. Loki’s gasps for air began to calm into shuddering inhalations and exhalations and once his breathing started to ease, the sobbing started. But even though the god’s face was wrenched into an expression of utter agony and he shook with the force of his sobs, his eyes remained unnervingly dry, seemingly staring at nothing.

Tony pressed his forehead to Loki’s, locking his hands on sharp cheekbones and trying to force him to look into Tony’s eyes, to look at him and come away from wherever he was inside of his head. Eventually, pain glazed green met chocolate brown and he saw a weight of shame and gratitude in those emerald depths. Loki’s arms wrapped around him, pulling him closer, and in utter exhaustion the two men fell into sleep. 

 

When Tony woke the next morning, he was warmer and more well rested than he could remember being in a long fucking time, if he’d ever been that cozy before. The body nestled against and draped over his own was a pleasant weight and he hummed in pleasure at the sensation. He curled in closer, nuzzling the neck of his bed-mate, growling softly in approval at the shiver it sent through them. The thigh that was wound between his legs shifted slightly and he moaned as it pressed nearer to his growing erection. Suddenly, a hand was fisting in his hair, dragging his lips up from where they were plying soft kisses to a throat to bring them forcefully against another pair of lips. One of them, or both of them, was moaning and Tony couldn’t even tell whose throat the delicious sounds were coming from. He couldn’t tell which of them pressed their tongue past the others' lips first, only knew that when they tangled, he felt like he’d come into contact with a live-wire and his entire body was trembling at the sensation. He gasped, his eyelids flickering open in surprise and meeting with swirling green irises surrounding blown-wide pupils and holyfuckingshit his mind was filling in the blanks here and Loki looked just as caught off guard as he was suddenly feeling. 

His gasp had broken up the lip-lock, the room still and silent save for the panting breaths that kept both of their lips parted, and all Tony could manage to do was continue staring into Loki’s pretty peepers in shocked disbelief. The expression on Loki’s face, he imagined, must be similar to his own, save for the glaring suspicion and reluctant acknowledgement that was also playing over the god’s features. Their limbs were still tangled stubbornly together, and Tony couldn’t seem to communicate to his the urge to move. Loki’s eyes, seductively smoky with arousal, roved over his face searchingly, and for once his expression seemed almost hesitant; it made Tony see, for the first time, a hint of vulnerability he hadn’t even suspected existed in the Trickster. But as his own gaze stuttered away when his heart began to pound in nervousness, not arousal, Loki’s features became shuttered, transitioned back into that disdainfully disinterested amusement that Tony was so used to. 

He felt a pang of something almost like regret when Loki’s eyes shifted away from him and the god's limbs untangled from his own. The sudden absence of the god’s warm flesh pressed against him left him chilly and he shivered slightly before he could cover the reaction. He could tell that Loki didn’t miss the involuntary response, despite his apparent efforts to ignore Tony at the moment. He was both relieved and disappointed when Loki disappeared into his closet, returning a short time later with his deliciously alabaster skin covered in Tony’s favorite Black Sabbath T-shirt and probably the only pair of pants Tony had that were remotely long enough for the god: a pair of gray sweats that looked decidedly absurd on such a prim and tasteful deity. Tony tried to smother the smidgeon of satisfaction he felt at seeing Loki dressed in his clothes, hair still mussed from sleep. 

Loki finally turned and met his gaze. “Come, Stark. I would have that conversation, now.” He turned and walked into the main room of the penthouse. Tony belatedly jumped out of bed, threw on his discarded pants, and trailed after him. 

When Tony arrived in the living room, Loki was already draped artfully over the sofa and his expression was that carefully crafted detached smirk that Tony was growing to hate. Tony sat on the other sofa opposite him, crossing his arms and watching Loki expectantly. The god huffed, rolled his eyes, then locked them with Tony’s. Having the full force of that ethereal green focused on him was unnerving when they weren’t both panting for air with limbs tangled and lips a breath apart. 

“When I told you I’d escaped from my prison, that wasn’t entirely truthful. There was a war in Asgard and I was released so that I may assist Thor in his efforts in battle. Once I’d performed the tasks they desired of me, more or less, I decided to remove myself to a locale a bit further away from my “family,” lest they expect me to while away more of my time in the little cell they assigned me.” Tony wasn’t really surprised. God of lies and all that jazz. But the opening to Loki’s confession only brought about more questions and Tony was curious as to why the god was explaining to him at all.

“When I said I watched you during my imprisonment, that much was truthful. The more I watched you, the more I began to think you might be of use to me and thus, when I saw the opportunity to force you into my debt, I took it.” Loki paused. “However, the majority of the damages I incurred were not from my stay in Asgard… though some were from our battles with the dark elves, most were sustained after I made my escape from that realm.” Loki idly toyed with one of the cords about his wrists. 

“The Allfather did not bind my magics, for he had no need to while I was imprisoned. My cage did that well enough. I did not lie about the nature of my magic, however, nor did I lie about its being bound.” Glinting green eyes narrowed as they observed Tony. “My injuries were incurred on my travels here, as I stopped for a few… errands, first. It was some of my blood relations who sewed shut my lips and inflicted most of the damages you saw. Thor did mention I was adopted, I trust?” Loki didn't bother waiting for a reply.

“As to why I am bothering to explain any of this to you… it’s honestly against my better judgment. You are not the mad genius that I need for my current machinations and unless that changes, you are of little use to me.” Loki’s slender fingers drummed against his crossed legs. “However, I am curious. The magic I attempted to use on you… its effects are beyond what I imagined and I have still not puzzled out the full implications of them. Regardless… you should know that the magic that began seeping into you from your arc reactor is not entirely mine. Some of my magic now resides in you, yes, but I was in possession of a great many powers that did not originate within myself at the time and they now reside in you, also.” Loki paused and Tony could see a brief flash of what looked like genuine concern. “Those... those could present a danger to you… a far greater danger than even I could hope to.”

Loki stood and walked slowly over to Tony, reaching out and placing his palm over the arc reactor. Tony stifled the desire to flinch, just barely. “Some of the power of the Tesseract was given to you through me and you had already harnessed a similar power through this intriguing element you managed to synthesize. It had begun changing you before I even stepped into the picture. It’s changing your very nature and the magic it pulled from me when I attempted to control you is only altering you further. You’re not quite… as human as you once were, though you’re still far more mortal than I.” He tapped the metal of the reactor lightly. “Any more than that... only time will reveal the answers to.”

“What the hell do you get out of…” At Loki’s glare, Tony shut his mouth. It was entirely against his nature and took a force of will he didn’t often deign to impose on himself, but since Loki was giving him something resembling answers… he supposed he could shut his pie hole and milk it for what it was worth for however long it lasted. 

“You know why I put your invention back in your chest. I care not if it angers you that I have done so. The power it holds is something you will need, if you are to survive. As for whether or not you make use of yourself,” Loki sneered, “that is entirely up to you. This is all I will answer for, Stark.” 

Then, Loki was gone. Piff, poof, gone. Tony was really going to have to master teleportation himself. That, and get a fucking tracking device tacked onto his resident God of Mischief. Maybe even finish up his little project and see if he could find a way to cancel out Loki’s magic so he couldn’t just fucking dash off to Oz whenever Tony had goddamn questions. Grumbling (with a lot of cursing thrown in for good measure), Tony stomped down to his lab, locked himself in for the day, and had Dum-E brew some really fucking strong coffee (which somehow, miraculously, the bot still managed to do perfectly).

 

After several days, Tony was feeling pretty pleased with himself. Nearly undetectable and indestructible tracking device: check. Comparisons of Loki’s magic signatures from each of his visits to the Tower and from SHIELD’s records: check. Hypotheses as to how to short circuit the voodoo: sort of check? Teleportation… well, okay, so maybe Tony didn’t really have all that much to show for the work he’d done since Loki had flashed out of his living room, much less to feel pleased with himself over. Whatever. He was going to have a surprise or two for the god, at any rate, and that was really satisfying enough for him.

It didn’t take long for Tony to be at thumb twiddling degrees of boredom. Boredom was never a good thing with Tony Stark. And now that he’d built Pepper her suit, there was really only one thing left for him to do, and it was the one thing he’d been studiously avoiding since his showdown with Killian and Pepper’s near-death. He knew, at least, that he could build a suit now. He already had. But the thought of building Iron Man again, of being Iron Man again, sent a roil of nausea and tremors of guilt and terror through his body. He knew where the guilt came from, but the terror… it didn’t come from the wormhole, or from torture and bombs, though that was still there, too. The only place this new fear could stem from was… himself. Tony had no idea how to deal with being petrified of something as… intangible... as his own mind. Especially when it had always been his biggest asset.


	11. Paying Dues

Tony could feel cold sweat breaking out on his body. He could feel his heart rate skyrocketing, his lungs gasping for air. He could feel his limbs thrashing out, his body falling, and somewhere deep down he knew this wasn’t the wormhole. But he couldn’t get his eyes to open. His throat felt raw and he didn’t know if he’d been screaming or if it was from the ragged tear of oxygen in and out of his lungs. But suddenly, he felt his body suspended; there were hands gripping his shoulders and waist, and then there was something blessedly solid underneath his body.

Through the buzzing in his ears, he could hear a voice. Gradually he could pick up on the sound of his name, but before that, he could distinguish the tone. It was imperious, demanding. He managed to wrench his eyes open, his hands flying out to grip the wrists attached to the hands on either side of his face. He wasn’t slow on the uptake this time. There was no way he could miss that damned green, even in the dark. It was kind of creepy how green those eyes were. They almost glowed, like a cat’s. 

His fingers released their grip on Loki’s wrists and he was curling them roughly into silken black hair, tugging the Trickster’s head down and raising his own to press their lips together in forceful crash of a kiss. His tongue was thrusting its way inside of Loki’s mouth nearly as soon as their lips met and he felt the other man groan as Tony relinquished his grip on Loki’s hair in favor of pulling him on top of him, forcing their bodies flush against each other. And gods, as soon as his lips had touched Loki’s that same pulse of something almost electric had jolted through him; he could feel it humming in his veins everywhere they touched and all he could think, feel, want was more.

Loki seemed only happy enough to oblige him, for once. His skillful tongue was warring for dominance with Tony’s, every bit as desperate as Tony’s own. Tony could feel the god’s body trembling softly and he knew his own was fairly vibrating with the sensation that their physical contact was shooting through him. He wondered, briefly, if Loki was feeling the same flares of… something… wherever they touched. But then he couldn’t wonder anymore because he had to touch more, feel more of that electricity against his skin... and why the fuck was he still wearing clothes? As his hands roved hungrily over the god pinning him to the mattress, everywhere they touched was bare, silken skin and heated flesh. Tony may have only been in an undershirt and boxers, but it was way too fucking much under the circumstances. 

Apparently, Loki sensed his distress because suddenly his clothes were just… gone. And gods… that was a useful trick. The sudden skin to skin contact and the resulting sparks of sensation had him moaning, and fuck he didn’t think he’d ever made a noise like that before in his life. He could hear the damned minx chuckling above him and practically sense the radiating smirk he knew must be on Loki’s face. And… he didn’t fucking care. He lifted his head in demand of another kiss while kneading the fingers of each hand into the cheeks of Loki’s ass, rolling his hips up into the Trickster’s, his erection sliding against the other man’s own hardened cock. Loki’s lips, which had been descending onto Tony’s, parted as they both let out a guttural groan and then Tony was closing the last bit of distance between their mouths, mashing their lips together as their tongues tangled. 

He continued the slow roll of his pelvis and could feel the muscles in Loki’s ass clench and release as his own hips followed Tony’s lead. The friction and the heat of their lengths rubbing against each other was driving Tony crazy, and he relinquished his hold on Loki’s ass to wrap his fingers tightly around both of their erections. Loki’s teeth pulled at Tony’s lower lip in response and Tony gave a slow, experimental stroke. He clenched his eyelids shut and could feel his breath hitching in response. Loki’s hands had found a grip on Tony’s hips and Tony knew there would be crescent shaped indents where his fingernails clamped down. 

Suddenly, Loki was raising up, leaning over Tony and gripping his knees, bending them and spreading his legs apart. Through his arousal induced haze, Tony jolted in surprise and a bit of discomfort. He was spread open before the god and Loki was perusing him like he was some abstract art piece he was assessing before he decided to buy it. Then, the Trickster was licking his lips and Tony could catch the gleam of wicked delight in his eyes as Loki released one of Tony’s legs to run a finger lightly between the cheeks of his ass, pausing briefly to circle his entrance, then continuing the caress down to his perineum. Here, Loki pressed ever so slightly and hummed in satisfaction at the twitch of interest Tony’s erection gave. 

Tony could feel a blush creeping over his cheeks, and goddamnit was that annoying. Mostly annoying because Tony was nervous, and Tony was nervous because he wasn’t in control, wasn’t in his comfort zone, hadn’t been on this end of the penis before. Sure, he was curious, and fuck no, he wasn’t about to turn down a chance to sleep with a literal god, but then, there was a reason he’d never bottomed before. Letting another man fuck you took levels of trust Tony Stark wasn’t even close to reaching, or levels of desire he didn’t generally feel for people. So, yeah. Tony was nervous and when Tony was nervous, Tony babbled. Like now.

“Uh, so, you know. Funny thing is, much as I may be a slut and have fucked practically everything on two legs, I don’t exactly let everything on two legs fuck me.” The words flowed out, barely a pause for breath between them.

Loki arched an eyebrow in what almost looked like surprise. “Are you attempting to tell me, Stark, that you’ve never let yourself be fucked?” Goddamn, the way that "fucked" rolled off of Loki’s tongue in that crisply proper accent should have been illegal. 

Tony swallowed, opened his mouth to respond, and for once found himself without words. He managed, “Geez, refrain from calling me Stark when we’re making with the naked, Loki. Not sexy.” The look that began to creep over Loki’s face was so doing nothing to reassure him. 

“Oh my. This is going to be quite the treat.” Loki purred the words seductively and damned if it didn’t nearly just distract Tony enough. Or maybe that was the sight of Loki leaning over him, lips hovering just above Tony’s erection as he smiled and traced his lower lip with his tongue. His luminescent green eyes were locked with Tony’s brown. He paused there for a moment, then his lips were parting over the head of Tony’s cock and he was sucking it down slowly, painfully slowly. He kept going, swallowing around Tony until he could fit in his entire length, his nose brushing the curls at its base. Tony moaned, his eyes screwing shut as Loki hummed happily over his erection, throat squeezing around him with the sound. 

“Ffffffuck.” Tony groaned out the word, nearly quivering as the tight, wet heat of Loki’s mouth began to slide back up his shaft. His wicked tongue pressing in just the right places, he paused when he reached the tip, sucking and swirling his tongue around it and releasing it with an audible pop. His green eyes never leaving Tony’s, he flicked out his absurdly talented tongue again to lap at the precome leaking from the slit on the head of Tony’s cock. Abruptly, Loki was swallowing him down once more and he could only pant and watch as Loki's glistening lips moved up and down his shaft as the god set a grueling rhythm. Finally, when Tony was wrecked and desperate, Loki stilled, swallowing around him, his eyes glinting in mirth at the hiss of approval it gained him. 

It was all Tony could do to keep from fucking his cock into Loki’s throat, and he only had mild degrees of success in stilling his hips as he shook from the force of trying not to thrust into the delicious suction around him. When Loki’s mouth relinquished his aching erection, he might have whimpered. Just a little. Give him a break, the guy was a god; he’d lived for over a millennia and obviously gotten the name “Silver Tongue” for a reason. A damn good reason. Perhaps it wasn’t the intended reason, but hey, he figured Loki would be just as entertained by the double entendre as he was. 

That brief train of thought died as Loki pulled first one and then both of Tony’s balls into his mouth, gently rolling them over his tongue. He kept up his ministrations until he had Tony squirming beneath him, holding his wrists down to keep him from touching himself. He nibbled lightly at the skin of Tony’s sack before he pulled away. He studied Tony for a moment and apparently found him satisfactorily incapacitated and aroused, because then he was sliding a slippery finger across Tony’s perineum and circling it teasingly around his entrance. 

Tony’s breath hitched, this time as much in anticipation as in fear. He fisted his hands in the sheets, legs involuntarily falling further open, and he saw a rewarding gleam of arousal and impatience in Loki’s eyes. Loki continued that playful circling of his finger, sometimes dipping it to press lightly against the tight ring of muscle, as he trailed wet, open-mouthed kisses over whatever bit of Tony’s skin he could reach: hips, stomach, chest. When he reached Tony’s nipples he paused, laving at them with his tongue before playfully nipping them. His thumb slid lightly back and forth over Tony’s perineum, pressing down every so often and earning a needy groan of approval. 

Tony was beyond being embarrassed for the sounds he could hear himself making. He didn’t remember ever being quite this turned on, or having his body played quite this well. The smug look on Loki’s face showed he knew it, too. But Tony would get the god back for that later. Right now, it was all he could do to keep the moans tearing from his throat from turning into needy keens and whimpers. His body was squirming under Loki’s touch, burning and electric, and if the god was as good at fucking him as he’d been at everything else so far, well, he was getting a lot less worried about finding out. 

Loki trailed his tongue up Tony’s neck, sucking harshly on the skin, and Tony could feel it bruising, knew there were going to be marks all over him when he looked into the mirror in the morning. As Loki scraped his teeth lightly over the sensitive skin he’d just marked, the finger that had been teasing Tony finally breached him and Tony hissed a little at the foreign sensation. He’d been distracted enough and Loki’s fingers were deliciously wet enough that it hadn’t hurt… but it was still… uncomfortable. Loki’s teeth nibbled at Tony’s earlobe and when Tony began to squirm again underneath him, his finger slowly started to slide out of Tony, then work its way back in again. That tingling, electric sensation that sizzled to life wherever they touched felt maddening as that finger worked in and out of him, stretching him. There was a slight burn to the stretch when Loki added a second magically lubed up finger, but as he curled his digits just slightly inside of Tony, they just barely brushed that certain spot and Tony was too busy trying to buck his hips back into the touch to pay any mind to the discomfort. 

Loki chuckled breathily into Tony’s ear and Tony shivered in response. Bastard. As Tony tried to rock his hips back onto Loki’s fingers again, Loki’s other arm pinned them and held him still. Tony shot him a glare and the god growled, low and rumbling and full of impatience as his lips crashed into Tony’s again. Loki’s tongue was thrusting into his mouth with the same rhythm that his fingers were thrusting into Tony’s ass and damn if he didn’t just barely brush where he knew it would drive Tony crazy on every stroke, the tease. When Loki finally added a third finger, Tony didn’t even register the discomfort, he just groaned in relief at the fullness of the sensation and how, even when Loki tried to keep up the teasing curl of them inside of Tony, they pressed just that little bit more firmly and had him panting for breath. When Loki finally relented, his fingers fucking into Tony with a naughty, wet squelch, and he starting pressing them at just the right angle to give Tony the pressure he needed… Tony’s eyes rolled back and he saw stars. 

He could feel Loki’s erection rutting against him and he reached down to wrap his fingers around it, licking his lips hungrily when he felt how wet Loki was from the precome spilling from his tip. He coated his palm in it, sliding it wetly over Loki’s length and biting his lip to hold back a fierce growl of pleasure at the unhinged little groan the god gave, bucking his hips into the caress. Then Loki was pulling his fingers out of Tony and he whimpered in response as he felt the loosened muscles of his entrance fluttering with the sudden emptiness. Loki yanked his knees up higher, hooking them over his shoulders, and rubbed his cock slowly, enticingly over the wet and twitching mess of Tony’s ass. His fingers gripped Tony’s cheeks, spreading him wider, and then Tony could feel the thick head of Loki’s cock slowly sliding into him. 

They moaned in unison as Loki continued to work the hot length of his erection inside of Tony. When he finally paused, the entirety of him sheathed tightly, they were both panting heavily for breath, their eyes shuttered with pleasure. The stretch of him inside of Tony was almost too much, too thick, a little painful, but Loki remained still above him until his inner muscles had adjusted to the invasion and his hips were trying to grind up into Loki for more. The god tutted, softly, pressing a sloppy kiss to Tony’s mouth as he rolled his hips experimentally. Tony gasped into his mouth and Loki hummed in satisfaction.

Loki pulled back, thrusting into him slowly, calculatedly. Tony’s hips arched up of their own accord, eager for the fullness of Loki’s cock back inside of him. Loki managed to keep up the slow and careful pace for a few more thrusts, but the little keening mewls of need that were escaping Tony were driving him mad with want and soon their hips were slamming forcefully together. The sound of skin smacking against skin, the wet squelch of Loki’s cock squeezing inside of Tony with each roll of his hips, resonated with their labored breathing in the room. Loki’s face was burrowed into Tony’s neck and he was gasping out absolutely filthy praise and encouragement. Tony’s legs were falling further apart, trying to gain more leverage to arch up into the god’s thrusts, and Loki finally let them fall from his shoulders. 

Tony immediately curled them over the god’s waist, his heels pressing demandingly into Loki’s ass, his arms wrapping around the other man’s shoulders as he raked his nails roughly across the god's spine. The answering violent roll of Loki’s hips had his cock finally, blessedly pressing into Tony’s prostate and holy fucking shit. Tony heard a needy little whine, and knew it must have come from him, but fuck if he cared right now. Loki was growling into his neck as he pressed sloppy kisses into his skin and now that he’d found the right angle to pound into Tony at, he was hitting his sweet spot with each drag of his cock in and out of Tony’s ass. He hadn’t even come close to touching Tony’s dick, but between the slight friction of Loki’s abs sliding against his erection and the toe curling press of him against Tony’s prostate, Tony was spiraling quickly toward what felt like it would be the strongest orgasm he’d ever had. 

Loki’s lips were locked with Tony’s again and they were gasping for air as their mouths meshed violently together. Loki added a delicious snap of his hips at the end of each thrust that had Tony writhing under him, a low whine echoing from Tony’s throat into their interlocked mouths. He could feel Loki smirking into their kiss, but considering the frantic rhythm of the god’s heart where their chests were pressed together and the faltering pace of his thrusts as he grew more desperate above Tony… well, Tony would probably be smirking, too. Through the tell-tale tightening in the pit of his stomach and tingling in his spine that meant his release was just a few breaths away, though, he couldn’t quite manage that degree of control over his facial expressions. 

And goddamn that fucking electric tingle of Loki inside of him, of Loki everywhere on him and in him, had his balls pulling up tight and the hot jets of his come were being ripped out of him, splattering across his and Loki’s torsos. Loki gave a final tug at his lower lip, sucking it lightly between his teeth as he kept pumping into Tony, fucking him through his orgasm. His teeth nipped a trail down Tony’s neck, pausing, panting over the juncture it made with his shoulder above his collar bone, his thrusts into Tony wilder, harsher. Tony whimpered at the overstimulation as Loki’s prick kept up its maddening brush over his prostate and then bucked underneath Loki as the god’s teeth clamped down hard enough to break the skin. He could feel Loki’s thrusts turn shallower, then the sensation of the god’s hot come spilling inside of him, and couldn’t hold back a groan of pained pleasure as the liquid heat of it filled him. 

Loki collapsed bonelessly on top of him, not pulling out as he nuzzled Tony’s neck and cheek, stroking his fingers through his hair. Tony chuckled, breathlessly, and curled his own hands in the damp jet black strands of the god’s quite unkempt mane, his legs sliding down from Loki’s waist and tangling with the other man’s. Loki gave a contented purr as he continued to stroke the god’s hair and Tony shivered as the air came into contact with his sweat dampened and cooling skin. Loki twitched his fingers ever so slightly, and suddenly they were both dry, clean, and the blankets were wrapped snugly around them. 

“So, um. I’d be willing to do that again, for the record. You know, if you feel like it.” Green eyes lazily roved over his face, and kiss swollen lips quirked into a satisfied little half smile. 

“I think that could be arranged, if you behave adequately in the meanwhile.”

“Baby, I never behave and I don’t really think you want me to.” Tony yelped as Loki nipped the shell of his ear.

“Go to sleep, Stark.”

“What did I say about calling me Stark while we’re naked?”


	12. Back in the Saddle Again?

Tony gave a soft hum of pleasure as he burrowed into the warmth of Loki’s body, feeling a lazy niggling of arousal course through him as he inhaled the masculine, spicy scent of the god’s skin. He fended off acknowledging consciousness for as long as he could, finally cracking one eyelid slightly open as he felt Loki stirring in his arms.

Somehow over the course of the night they’d ended up spooning, with Tony currently as the big spoon. He had idly began to think of how the Trickster might take offense at that when Loki wriggled his ass more firmly back into Tony’s groin and pulled the arm wrapped around his waist tighter against him. Tony felt his cock begin to stiffen in interest.

“I’m sleeping Stark. If you are not, at least be wise enough to pretend that you are so.” Loki’s voice was husky, deeper and coarser with the remnants of sleep. 

Tony pressed a lingering kiss to the nape of Loki’s neck, feeling the god shiver in response, and obligingly closed his eyes. He was surprised but unnervingly thrilled that the Lie-Smith was still in his bed this morning. His erection was pressed firmly against Loki’s backside, but he was content to ignore it for the time being, considering how comfortable his current position was. Loki groaned softly, the sound vibrating where Tony’s chest was pressed to his back. Then he was arching seductively back into Tony’s erection, his hand pulling Tony’s away from his chest to press it to the hard, hot length of his own cock. 

Tony ran his palm softly across the god’s length, smiling against his neck as he heard him hiss. He curled his fingers lightly around Loki’s shaft and began to lazily stroke him. Loki squirmed against him and Tony gave a hiss of his own when the other man’s luscious ass ground across his cock. 

He pulled Loki’s hips more firmly against him, rubbing his cock into the cleft of his ass as he kept up his teasing caresses of Loki’s erection. Then Loki was pulling his hand away, rolling over and pulling Tony on top of him to ply him with a wet, open mouthed kiss as he rutted their cocks together with a slow roll of his hips. Tony groaned, and pulled away from the god’s kiss swollen lips to press kisses across his neck, humming in satisfaction when he made Loki gasp. 

Tony lightly ran his nails across Loki’s ribs before pinching at his pale pink nipples and as the god arched his back in pleasure, he trailed possessive nips and kisses across his chest, studiously avoiding those hardened nubs. He could hear Loki make a noise of frustration and finally relented, sucking the pebbled flesh of one into his mouth, curling his tongue over it teasingly. He switched his attention to the other and gave a pleased growl when Loki gasped as his teeth closed firmly against it. 

Their hips still rolled lazily together, but Tony had something more interesting in mind, while he had the chance. He trailed his mouth further down Loki’s body, scraping teeth lightly over ribs and hips, plying toned muscle with wet kisses. He paused, letting his breath exhale softly against the god’s erection, his lips a hairsbreadth away, and lifted his gaze to lock with Loki’s when he felt the body underneath his go completely still, taut as a bowstring. Loki didn’t even look like he was breathing and the demand, the anticipation in those green eyes had Tony palming his own erection to relieve some of the ache it stirred. 

He slowly extended his tongue, lightly stroking it over the tip of Loki’s cock, loving how he could feel it twitch against his lips, how he could taste the slight beading of fluid at its slit in response to that small action. So, naturally, he swirled his tongue maddeningly lightly across it a few more times, until he could hear Loki snarling his impatience. He continued the slow rhythm of his hand up and down his own length as he finally sucked the head of the god’s dick into his mouth, pressing his tongue just underneath it on Loki’s shaft. He continued to suck at the Trickster’s leaking head, alternately flicking his tongue over the slit and pressing it into that tender spot just beneath the tip. Loki’s hips were thrusting up against him, trying to force more of his length past Tony’s lips and finally he acquiesced to the god’s wishes, slowly taking the whole of his shaft into his mouth and down his throat, his tongue firmly tracing the vein on the underside of it until his lips were wrapped around its very base. He hummed and squeezed his throat over the hot flesh invading it. Loki’s hands tangled tightly in his hair and the expression on his face as he tugged at the messy, dark strands was almost pained.

Tony tightened his grip on his own cock as he began to slide back up Loki’s length, searching the god’s face for every nuance of expression he made. As his mouth almost slid off of Loki's head, the god raised his hips and pulled Tony’s head down with the hold he had on his hair, fucking himself back into Tony’s throat. Tony groaned around the length in his mouth in delighted approval. And then Loki was in control, forcing Tony’s mouth up and down his length, his hips lifting to thrust his cock back into the wet heat of Tony's throat, his lips curled in a feral snarl. Tony closed his mouth just slightly, just barely, to allow his teeth to lightly graze over Loki’s shaft with each thrust and heard the god make a noise somewhere between a growl and a groan above him as his eyes fluttered shut.

He felt Loki’s cock twitch as it fucked back inside his mouth and swallowed around it, anticipating the orgasm that couldn’t be far off and pushing him towards it. His fist tightened around his own length and his strokes sped, roughened. He swirled his tongue across the base of Loki’s shaft and sensed him still and there it was. He could feel the god’s hot come spurting into his throat and continued swallowing around his length until Loki was hissing with oversensitivity, every drop of his semen coaxed from him. 

Then he pulled away, sitting up, crouched above the god’s sprawled and debauched form. He saw Loki smirk lazily and then he was pulling his legs up, bending his knees so Tony could look at the veritable bounty that was the parts of Loki’s body he hadn’t yet explored. Tony groaned as he continued his ministrations to his cock, committing the scene to memory. He could hear the slick clicking of each stroke of his hand across his weeping head and as he cupped his balls, softly rolling them in his other hand, he felt his orgasm building and leaned in closer to that pale porcelain and pink skin. He forced his eyes to stay open as it ripped through him and watched as his come splattered hotly over Loki’s balls and perineum. It dripped down the god’s skin, some of it coating his entrance, and Tony growled in utter satisfaction. The look in Loki’s own eyes was hot and greedy when he met them once more.

After cuddling briefly in the sticky mess they had made, the pair traipsed by unspoken agreement to Tony’s massive shower. They remained silent as their hands caressed, explored each others' bodies. Tony felt vulnerable as Loki lathered his skin and hair and when he turned to do the same for the Trickster, he saw uncharacteristic shyness in the way he barely met Tony's eyes. 

When they stepped out of the warm spray of the water, they took turns drying each other, and Tony took extra care with the wild locks of Loki’s hair. Once they were dressed, they ventured into the kitchen where JARVIS had already, in anticipation of their destination, brewed a pot of fresh coffee. Tony poured two steaming mugs of the beverage, handing the first to Loki, then setting out honey, creamer, milk, and sugar. He sipped at his own black coffee as he watched Loki pour a dollop of honey and milk into his cup, eerily using his magic to stir it. 

He finally broke the silence. “So what do Asgardian’s eat for breakfast?”

Loki took a sip of his coffee, gave a soft, pleased sound, then chuckled. “As long as you do not attempt to ply me with Pop-Tarts again and it is edible, I shall be content.” His gaze sharpened on Tony. “Unless you are incapable of cooking. Then I shall fix something for myself.” He paused, pointedly. “And for you, also, if you require it.”

Tony smirked at Loki’s affected unconcern with him. “I assure you, I can at least manage to whip up some breakfast.” 

Tony ransacked the cabinets and refrigerator and some time later produced his self-proclaimed amazing waffles, which did indeed look surprisingly edible. Loki dug into his portion, eyes briefly narrowing in contemplation and surprise, and his plate was quickly emptied. Tony finished his own breakfast at a more moderate pace, enjoying watching the god so obviously appreciating his efforts. 

When Loki was finished, he voiced a question that had been niggling at him since their post-orgasm cuddle this morning. “How did I get in my room last night? I know I fell asleep in my lab.”

Loki rolled his eyes. “I returned and when I did not find you elsewhere, I went to your lab to search for you. I found you collapsed across your worktable and decided to bring you back up to your cot, as the position you were sleeping in looked distinctly uncomfortable. I did not want to deal with your foul mood when you awakened, should I leave you there.” If Loki were not so skilled at deception and affected nonchalance, Tony imagined he would be examining his fingernails as he spoke.

Tony felt a small smile pull at his lips and did his best to contain it, lest Loki notice. He gathered their dishes to put in the washer. “Well, uh, thanks. For waking me up, too.” He felt what seemed suspiciously like a blush creeping over his face and turned away from Loki’s probing gaze. Those emerald depths had raised their own questions in his post-coital bliss. He had a lot to think about, whenever Loki wandered off again. Until then, he supposed there were a few things he should share with the god.

“Come on. I’ve got something I want to show you.” He tugged playfully at Loki’s fingers until he stood from his chair at the breakfast nook, rolling his eyes.

“I suppose I can spare a moment, since you seem so insistent.”

Tony led the way down to the lab and once again silence reigned between the pair. Entertaining, that the God of Lies and a man known for his showmanship had shared more silences in a single morning than he suspected either of them generally were inclined to. Yes, Loki was rather quiet and unobtrusive when left in peace, but peace was not something Tony was known for and the god’s tongue rose to the occasion and could cut with utmost precision when he was perturbed. When they finally reached the lab, Tony hesitated for a moment, then strode swiftly through the doors, Loki on his heels.

He paused in the center of the lab. “JARVIS, if you will…”

“As you wish, Master Stark. Good morning, Master Loki.” Tony gave the cameras in the room the Eye, boggled by JARVIS’ use of Master in reference to the infamous Trickster. He shook his head, saving that worry for another time.

“Good morn to you also, JARVIS.” The god looked amused at Tony’s obvious befuddlement. Bastard.

But then the shutters were opening in a different section of the lab’s wall and Tony turned toward it. “Loki, meet Mark 44.”

He caught the gleam of excitement and a flash of something that looked almost hopeful before it was quashed in the other man’s eyes as he examined the glinting deep red and nearly bronze golden armor. 

“Rather interesting that you decided to make an appearance mere hours after its completion, after disappearing for so long.” And it was suspicious that Loki should return just as Tony had completed the finishing touches on this masterpiece of an armor when there hadn't been a trace of him in weeks. But the god’s expression as he reluctantly turned again to Tony was surprised, if satisfied. 

“I assure you, Anthony, that I did not expect to find such a delightful new trinket in your Tower upon my return. I am, however, not disappointed that I did, nor do I really care if you believe it to be the reason I am here now.” 

Tony took a small step towards the other man, his eyes narrowed. “I’m probably off my rocker, but I believe you. About this much, at least.” And he did, as terrifying as the implications of that small admission were. That the jury was still out on the rest hung unspoken between them. He saw Loki's eyes narrow, but the Asgardian nodded even as he huffed disdainfully in Tony's direction.

While they were doing introductions, however, he supposed he could show the god Dum-E, Butter Fingers, and U. They were hovering about anyway, about to cause some manner of mischief. The look on Loki’s face as a robotic arm tugged on his pant leg and the robot attached to it whirred in excitement was priceless. But not as priceless as his face when a fire extinguisher was brandished at both himself and Tony, and before Tony could stop his belovedly idiotic creations, both he and the God of Mischief were seated on the floor, coated in white foam. He laughed at the irony of his 'bots pranking the Trickster, as he heard their whirring turn into something that sounded suspiciously like robotic laughter, and even JARVIS had to clear his nonexistent throat at the spectacle they made.

 

But soon enough Loki left again, as Loki was want to do, and Tony was left with his rather rattled thoughts. When he was staring up into glowing green eyes the night before, something had finally clicked, or been coaxed out of his memory, then promptly been shuffled aside to be revisited at a more opportune moment. And it was just that, that those infuriating eyes that belonged to an equally infuriating Trickster were unmistakably, undeniably, irrevocably green. The Loki that had wrenched a hand around his throat, cutting off his air supply, and then launched him through the glass of his own window? That Loki didn’t have green eyes. His eyes were an eerie, ethereal blue. A blue that reminded Tony of his arc reactor. A blue that reminded him of Barton and Selvig’s eyes, when they were under mind control, and of the staff that controlled them, the Tesseract that had caused the entire goddamn fiasco.

Now, Tony would be the first person to admit that Loki was a Bag of Dicks, and yes, the title deserved to be capitalized just for him. He’d also be the first to admit that Loki’s brain was a bag of cats, that he was an egotistical megalomaniac with a bit of a subjugation kink. His Daddy didn’t love him enough, his brother was the jock that everybody liked that picked mercilessly on his nerdy little brother, along with his posse of imbecilic friends. Yada, yada. Not that Tony didn’t get that shtick. But Loki was a thinker, a plotter, for fuck’s sake he was The Trickster, the God of Lies, the Lie-Smith, the Silver-Tongue. Yet, the Loki that had been dragged away muzzled and chained hadn’t made a quip beyond his inquiry about the drink Tony had offered him, after being turned into a throw rug by the Hulk. He hadn’t tricked or plotted his way out and his eyes, Tony thought, and now having looked over the SHIELD footage once again, knew, were green when he’d pulled himself out of his concrete imprint. What had Natasha called it? Cognitive re-calibration? 

The fact of the matter was, Tony knew a few things about Loki, after the degree of proximity they had attained. Loki wouldn’t settle for second best. If he couldn’t have Asgard, it made absolutely no sense that he would make a try for Midgard. If anything it would be far more reasonable for him to set his sights on another realm, a realm not full of mortals that he, and Tony suspected most of Asgard, considered vastly beneath them. And there were seven entirely other realms to choose from, after Earth and Asgard. Even if you didn’t count Jotunheim, which should have been fair game in its fragile state (despite their probably wanting Loki’s head on a platter, but who knew with a warlike race like that), or Svartalfheim, that still left five realms to choose from, from what Tony could tell from his crash course in Norse mythology and the Nine Realms. 

But anyway… Loki wasn’t going to settle for second best. Beyond that, his plan on conquering Midgard? It just didn’t seem very… Loki. Sure, it was ostentatious, which obviously he sort of dug (hello, horned helmet?), but it was… too much. It was overdone. Loki liked subtlety, trickery, he liked to earn his bread and butter, or his kneeling human worms. Crashing in with someone else' army, bashing the world he supposedly wanted to rule in the process? It just didn’t make any fucking sense. It certainly wasn’t the polished and finessed sort of logic he was used to when dealing with Loki in recent weeks. Then, there was the little question of who’s army that had fucking been. Getting the Chitauri and the huge ass Leviathans on loan seemed really fishy and he didn’t really want to think about who could easily provide that sort of firepower to attain one little cube, but it needed to be considered, and badly. But speaking of the cube… with such unlimited power, what was to stop the cunning and conniving little minx from vanishing with it and then using its absurd power to gain him anything, any world, he wanted? 

When Tony thought about it, two and two were really starting to look more like five, or fifty, even, but certainly not four. The images from their first encounter with Loki showed, along with eerily not right blue eyes, a pale, sweating mess of a god that looked to be under serious duress. Not to mention the manic light in those eyes was completely wrong. There were times when Tony thought Loki’s eyes looked a bit haunted, or malicious, or any number of other things… but this unhinged and totally alien expression in them that he saw when he looked back over their footage was vastly different from anything he’d seen himself since that initial encounter.

Add on to that the nightmares that he had woken the god from and Tony was starting to get some very terrifying suspicions. What could break a god? What could scare him enough that he would utterly ruin himself, condemn himself to being locked away? What would make him seal his own magic? 

…Who could do that? Tony wondered, not for the first time, just how many aliens that bomb had killed inside of the wormhole. He wondered how many more it didn’t kill, how many were waiting back wherever that army had come from. He wondered what else, what worse, might be out there lurking and felt a chill creep up his spine. Combined with the explanation Loki had made about the magic inside of Tony, about how some of it had been borrowed, how that part could prove very dangerous to Tony… it was, quite frankly, terrifying what could be inferred.

For now, there was no one he could share his theories with, not if he wanted to keep this thing he had with Loki going, not if he wanted to find out what the god was up to. He felt fairly certain he was preparing for something, and Tony imagined that something was the answer to the questions that had him wanting to piss himself.

He shook himself out of his thoughts. There were other things he could explore currently while he waited for his infuriating… housemate… to return. Other things he might be able to find answers for. Certain as he was of most of the things he’d been contemplating, he was vastly more certain that what he was about to do was a bad idea. But it was also a wonderful one.

He picked up the phone and called Bruce.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/post/62412946663/a-favor-owed-by-spookz-magenta-this-is-the  
> Because these two require at least one semi-nude drawing.


	13. Science Bros will Rule the World (or Stark Tower)

Tony paced anxiously, waiting for Bruce to arrive at the Tower. He hadn’t seen him since their little heart to heart after his showdown with Killian and the removal of his arc reactor. He’d missed Banner like crazy, especially they way they just… scienced all over the place. It was beautiful. He was so pumped to get Bruce back in his space. He wasn’t going to let him say no. Now that the other floors of the Tower were finished with their remodeling, there was no way in hell he was letting Bruce get away. His science bro was totally going to be an occupant of the Tower, just like Tony had intended since all of a day after Loki’s failed invasion. Of course, there was the small issue of Loki lurking about and Tony’s replaced arc reactor, but he figured if Loki’s disguise could fool Pepper, it was worth attempting to get Bruce back. 

When he saw Banner’s bespectacled face look up into the security camera, he bolted into the elevator, then when it landed in the lobby so many floors down, out of the door and across the room to pounce Bruce and wrangle him into a crushing hug. Bruce gave that nervous little chuckle of his as Tony pulled him and his small suitcase into the elevator with him.

Banner adjusted his glasses. “Not that I wasn’t glad to hear from you Tony, and not that I’m not grateful for your invitation to come visit… but what was so urgent that I had to be here now, and stay here, when I haven’t heard from you in so long?” 

Tony rubbed a hand over his scruff as the elevator began to rise to the floor just below his lab, two floors below his penthouse. He cleared his throat and tried, unsuccessfully, to meet Banner’s eyes.

“So, uh, I guess you know what happened with me and Pepper.” Bruce nodded, watching him with some concern. “Well, I wasn’t so good after that. Which, you probably figured. And... and I’m sorry about that. I’m sorry I just sort of checked out on everybody. But all of it… it kind of made me check out on me, too.” He sighed.

“Then there was the whole people trying to kill me thing, and I’ve… I’ve had some really fucking weird shit going on. That’s part of what I need to talk to you about. But I need to know, and please understand me asking this Bruce, please… I need to know that you won’t tell SHIELD, or anyone, anything that happens from the time we step out of this elevator.” He saw Bruce’s eyes narrow in full fledged worry.

“You know I’m as little a fan of SHIELD as you are, Tony. Beyond that, you’re my friend. One of the only ones I can afford to have and probably the only person I’ve met that doesn’t treat me like I’m terminally ill.” He paused. “I don’t know what you’ve gotten yourself into, but I’ll hear you out. I give you my word I won’t tell anyone about whatever this is unless your life, or someone else', is in danger because of it.” 

Tony knew he couldn’t ask for more than that. He didn’t know that, even if he could, he would want to. The elevator door pinged open.

“Okay, Brucie. Let’s go get you settled into your new space and then it’s story time. After that, you can decide if you’re okay with staying.” He led the way out of the elevator onto Bruce’s remodeled floor with all of its swanky new commodities. He’d made sure to make it as subtle as he could, considering how uncomfortable basic comforts, much less those that came with absurd wealth, made the other man. 

Tony put Bruce’s suitcase just inside of the door of the master bedroom on that floor, Bruce trailing behind him and peaking around in interest in spite of himself, and then Tony led the way back into the living room, settling on the couch where he began to peel up his shirt. Bruce’s eyes widened in response and Tony hushed him before he could open his mouth to speak, slowly revealing the metallic plating underneath his t-shirt and covering the chest of his undershirt. 

Tony paused, still nervous of Bruce’s reaction, then undid the plating and lifted the rest of the clothing from his chest, revealing the glowing blue of his arc reactor. He saw Bruce’s eyes widen in alarm.

“So, uh. I had a little re-installation made, a few weeks ago. Completely unintentionally.” He gulped. “I had a bit of a run-in with a, er, sorcerer, I guess you’d call him. I might have pissed him off a bit. And poof!” He watched as Bruce’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “But we sort of came to a truce, a while after that. He might have mentioned something about my being a little less than human now because of the reactor and the magic that Loki tried to cast on me last year. He said it’s changing me.” Tony twitched under Bruce’s scrutiny. 

Bruce remained silent for a beat too long. “There’s no way that's all there is to your story, Tony. But I’ll let you tell me the rest in your own time. For now, color me intrigued. I want to see what this mysterious “sorcerer” meant about the reactor and the magic changing you.” He rubbed his palms together and stood. “No better time to start than now.”

Tony jumped to his feet after Bruce. “You mean you’re staying? Please say you’re staying. I made another lab for you! You can play with all of the shiny science you want! And I’ll be your guinea pig for as long as necessary.”

Bruce sighed, turned, and raised an eyebrow. “I suppose I can stay for the time being. I make no long term promises, however. You need someone around to keep you in line, much less to monitor your health after recent events. Now get your ass up to your lab with me.” 

Tony feigned shock at Bruce’s use of a curse word and trailed obediently behind him.

 

Tony watched as Bruce hovered over his microscope, blood samples scattered about him. He would peruse the same slide for what seemed like hours, switch it out for another, then do the same thing only switch them back again. It was driving Tony mad. Finally, blessedly, Bruce looked up from his microscope.

“Well… your DNA still looks normal.” Bruce fiddled with his glasses.

“But?” Tony barely refrained from crossing his arms and tapping his foot in impatience.

“But your cells don’t seem to be aging normally. Or responding to anything normally, really.” Bruce shrugged. “I don’t know what to make of it. It’s unprecedented. But then, I guess anything involving magic is, really.”

Tony began to pace, the gears in his mind sifting back through everything he’d already sifted through a hundred times over that morning. He ended up in the same unhappy place every time: not knowing what the hell was going on or being able to do anything other than wait for Loki to return and continue trying to puzzle out his new body chemistry. Why the fuck had he forgotten to put that tracking chip on Loki? Oh yeah. Sex. Really amazing, mind-blowing sex. He and Bruce decided to call it a day, and it wasn’t long before they settled into a comfortable routine of “stick Tony with needles and see if something weird happens.” 

 

Tony was eating breakfast (well, brunch, really) at the island in his kitchen with Bruce (who was actually on lunch and tea, since he kept better hours than Tony), when Loki padded softly into the kitchen from Tony’s room in his ginger guise. Tony was facing the other direction and was thus barely able to mask his surprise when the Trickster’s arms wrapped around him from behind and his pointy chin nuzzled into his shoulder. He managed to swallow his gulp of coffee and then turned to kiss the god warmly on the lips. 

“Sleep well?” he asked, taking note of the rumpled t-shirt and shorts Loki was wearing. His rumpled t-shirt and shorts, which he still found decidedly comical but alarmingly hot on the deity. 

Loki hummed a soft agreement in reply. Bruce looked surprised at their obvious familiarity, but he seemed to be buying Tony’s charade of “it’s all good, this guy totally spent the night snuggled in my bed doing naughty things with me,” instead of wondering just where the fuck Loki had come from. 

“Anthony, wherever are your manners? Are you even going to introduce me to your lovely friend?” Loki’s pout was decidedly flirtatious and it brought a mischievous grin to Tony’s lips. 

“Introduce you to polite company?” He tutted. “Wouldn’t we be required to be on good behavior for that sort of thing?” 

He could see Loki’s lips quirk ever so slightly, holding back a grin as he glowered, and it made him feel absurdly accomplished. “Bruce, this is my... dear friend, Lyell. Lyell, you of course know who Bruce is, by now.” 

Loki rolled his eyes, stepped around Tony, and extended his palm. “Doctor Banner, it is an absolute pleasure to meet you. My name is Lyell Smith. I’m an associate of Anthony’s.” 

Bruce’s eyebrow quirked in amusement as he extended his own hand. “Only an associate? Well, it’s a pleasure, I’m sure, Lyell. It would seem you’re already more than familiar with me, so I’ll spare you the full niceties of introduction. I’m certain you’ve heard more than enough from Tony already.” 

“Oh, not at all, Doctor Banner. And of course I’m but an associate.” Loki’s grin was decidedly vicious. 

Tony held a hand to his heart and bemoaned his being wounded to Bruce and Loki’s great amusement.


	14. Welcome to the Wonderful World of Disney... er, Stark Tower

After several weeks, Bruce and Tony had made very little progress when it came to determining the nature of the alterations to Tony’s body. They knew he was not aging or healing in a normal fashion, but beyond that, their results had come to a standstill. They had settled into a somewhat comfortable and disturbingly domestic arrangement wherein Loki popped in occasionally, he and Bruce aggravated Tony, and Tony and Loki pretended they were cutesy little boyfriends (or something equally preposterous). 

However, it was not long before the metaphorical wolves came sniffing ‘round the door. Steve, Natasha, and Clint arrived en mass at the Tower, sent by Fury to check in on Tony. Meanwhile, Tony had been otherwise occupied, actually attending his meetings for once (at Pepper’s behest) and arrived home to an absolutely surreal scene. The first thing he’d noticed when he walked into the penthouse was the small heap of luggage. Then he walked around the corner and the kitchen came into view. The entirety of the Avengers, save for Thor and himself, were gathered around the island in his kitchen sipping tea with the Trickster as they laughed at some story or other that Loki was telling.

Tony had been in equal parts guilt-ridden and thrilled by Bruce’s easy camaraderie with the god, one being his dearest friend (save for Rhodey and Pepper) and the other being his… well, somehow absurdly close to him. But seeing Loki seated at the same table as the Hulk who had smashed him, along with two master assassins and one infuriatingly pristine super soldier? Tony felt like he was in the freaking Twilight Zone.

He knew what they all thought: that Loki was his lover, his rebound after he’d lost the life-line he’d had in Pepper. Considering the true nature of the arrangement he had with the god (blackmail, with a couple of rounds of amazing sex and a lot of paranoia, distrust, and suspicion piled on top), the charade was both amusing… and grating for Tony. 

He and Loki had a showdown, shortly after Bruce arrived, somewhat along the lines of “Are you certain this wise, Stark?” to which Tony had merely replied, “If you’d wanted me not to invite Bruce back into the Tower, you never would have hinted that there was something strange going on with my body.” Loki had glowered and sulked, but in the end, while he knew Loki couldn’t be overly fond of Bruce (what with the fact that he figured the Asgardian must be a bit… intimidated… by the Hulk, like any sane person), he knew that Loki had indeed wanted Bruce here, studying whatever changes Tony was going through. He wouldn’t go so far as to say the god was worried about him… but he did seem to be at least feeling some mild degree of concern. And Loki showing mild concern, naturally, had Tony in a state of near panic, though he’d strongly endeavored to hide it from both Bruce and his favorite neighborhood Trickster. He wasn’t all that certain that his efforts had met with any real success, however. 

Tony stepped into the kitchen, plastering an unassuming grin on his face. While Loki barely glanced at him, continuing with his story (gods, he was telling them about the incident where Tony introduced him to his robots), Steve had turned and was eyeing him guiltily, Clint was fiddling with one of his arrows and pointedly not looking at Tony (how the bastard managed to always be armed with a bow and a quiver of arrows, and discreetly at that, in this day and age was beyond Tony), Natasha gave him a challenging quirk of the eyebrow, and Bruce observed them all as cautiously as possible, like they were some concoction about to explode in his lab. Tony sidled up to Loki, draping an arm across his shoulders and nuzzling his cheek with his stubble. The god sighed and rolled his eyes, giving up on his story (presumably because he’d all but reached the end, anyway, not because of Tony), then turned and pressed a brief kiss to Tony’s lips. Tony couldn’t help but give into the distraction for a moment, and when he pulled away from Loki, he noticed a furious blush on Cap’s cheeks. 

His grin was wolfish. “Hey there guys. I didn’t know you’d be stopping by. Long time no see.” He paused. “Much as I’ve missed having the lot of you around, to what do I owe the pleasure?”

When Cap turned his All-American puppy dog eyes on her, Natasha sighed and rolled her eyes in a manner not unlike Loki. She fixed her gaze on Tony. “In light of recent events, Director Fury decided that it would be in everyone’s best interest if we were to come and reside in Stark Tower as you, yourself, had suggested some time ago.”

“By recent events… to what, specifically, are you referring?” 

“Well, for starters, the two attempts on your life with no leads as to who the culprits are. Anyone who can avoid detection by SHIELD when they’re searching is someone we need to be worried about. Beyond that, there have been sightings of a new Iron Man suit. When we investigated we found that it was not, in fact, piloted by you, but by Virginia Potts.”

Here Tony interrupted. “Wait, how the hell did you already find out about Pepper? She’s not even been out in the suit, yet, other than the day I gave it to her!”

Natasha’s stare was droll. “Some people actually have an aversion to lying to government agencies when they’re questioned, Stark.”

Tony groaned in response. Of course, if anyone had sighted the suit, SHIELD would have gone to Pepper first. They knew that despite the break in her relationship with Tony that she still kept careful tabs on the billionaire. They were practically family, after all. And of course beautiful, sweet, responsible Pepper would never attempt subterfuge on the merry band of assassins run by Nick Fury. 

“Since you appeared to have made a new Iron Man suit for someone else to use SHIELD found it probable that you might have made, or be making, more of them currently, in which case they wanted you monitored. You tend to be unstable at best, Stark, and without someone to keep tabs on you things go rather poorly for everyone.”

Tony really wanted to argue with that, but she did have a bit of a point. It still gave SHIELD absolutely no right to barge into his life and his privacy like this, but then again, he had wanted to find a way to rebuild the bonds that had been forged between the Avengers during the invasion. He’d wanted the others back in his life, and if at any point he was going to get back into the superhero gig (which he was still reluctant to admit was quite likely), he could very well need them. He certainly had an inkling that if things went as badly as he had a feeling they were going to when he finally got the answers to the questions he had about Loki, then even they might not be enough help. 

At his resigned sigh, Clint piped up. “Sorry, sweetie. Your honeymoon’s over. The in-laws have returned. No more sex in random and exotic places in the house, unless you want to suddenly find an arrow stuck in your ass.” 

Tony blinked, opened his mouth to reply, then blinked again. The expression of absolute consternation on Loki’s face sent him into a violent fit of guffawing laughter, and past the way his eyes were tearing up, he could see Bruce attempting to disguise his chuckling as a completely unsubtle cough into his fist. Loki turned an incensed expression on both Tony and Bruce, and Bruce had the temerity to actually look censured. Then Loki proceeded to stand and walk the few steps over to Hawkeye. Too quickly for Hawkeye to defend himself, he flicked the archer in the forehead and walked away. After that, it took an absurd amount of time to peel Tony off of the floor, where he had collapsed in a heap from his laughing fit. But then, by that point even Steve, Natasha, and Bruce were openly laughing as Clint incredulously stared at Loki’s primly retreating figure.

When Tony had finally caught his breath and risen into a sitting position, he smirked over at Clint. “I apologize, he’s a bit of a prima donna,” he said loudly enough that he could be sure Loki heard him in the next room. “Though, to be fair, you did deserve it, bird brain.” Tony ducked underneath the table as Clint pulled out his bow and started to knock an arrow.

 

Naturally, Loki was distinctly displeased with this change in their living arrangements. From the looks of it, displeased enough that Tony imagined he would be sleeping, once again, on his cot when the god stopped by. Heaven forbid Loki should have to use the front door, like a normal person, since there was no way they could fool two professional assassins with the teleporting business. Tony had showed Natasha, Clint, and Steve to their floors of the Tower not long after the group had arrived. He’d given the floor beneath Bruce to Clint, the next floor down to Natasha, and the floor below that to Steve. He figured when he was around, Thor could share a floor with Bruce. 

This led him to his current predicament: inviting Pepper to move back into the Tower and trying to convince Rhodey to at least make it a part time residence, as well. First, he tackled Pepper, as she had come by to warn him, rather belatedly, about his uninvited new residents. At first, when he posed his request to her she vehemently refused, as he’d had a feeling she would. After all, there were various extremely logical reasons to not live in the same neighborhood, much less the same building, as your ex-lover, especially when you and said ex-lover had only been broken up for a brief period of time and were still trying to sort out your lives again. 

But as Tony continued to reason with her, he could see her genuinely beginning to consider. If she was going to be a superhero and pilot one of his suits she’d need to be near him so he could fix it for her, or she’d constantly be carting it back and forth, not to mention the Tower was much more reinforced and there was practically no chance of someone breaking in and managing to make off with the suit if it was stored there. Then, there was the issue that if the suit were to be damaged badly enough that Pepper couldn’t fly it over for repairs, it would be too heavy for her to transport any other way, so Tony would either have to fly in his suit to get it, or someone like Cap would have to cart it to the Tower. All in all, none of these issues were going to make it very safe for Pepper to live by herself, much less make it easy to keep a degree of anonymity as a superhero. 

Finally, after what seemed like (and probably was) hours of talking, Pepper gave a resigned sigh. “I’ll think about it, Tony, but that’s all I’m promising for now. I should have an answer for you in a couple of days.”

“If you do move in, Pepper, I figured that you and Natasha could share a floor. She’s four floors below me, so you wouldn’t be right below me or anything, and you two know each other. You’ve worked together and you seem to get along and, dare I say, even to like each other.” He sighed. “I really don’t want you to be uncomfortable, but I do want you to be as safe as you can be, under the circumstances.”

She stood and walked over to him, pulling him into a hug. “I know Tony. Thank you.” She pulled away. “I’ll call you tomorrow. And apologize to Lyell for whatever it is you did. He’s been sulking the entire time I’ve been here.” 

Tony shook his head. He would never cease to be amazed at how well Pepper and Loki got along with each other. It just seemed… unnatural, unhealthy, somehow. Probably because both of them liked to boss him around so much (not that he would admit it). 

 

Using logic to win Rhodey over was certainly proving more difficult. He belonged to his own branch of the military, so while SHIELD would very much like to commandeer him, and while Rhodey probably would very well like to join the boy-band, he felt that his obligations lay elsewhere. Which he imagined the military felt the same way about, even more so since Rhodey had made off with one of Tony’s suits and become War Machine. Or rather, “Iron Patriot,” as they preferred it to be called.

However, what Tony couldn’t connive with in logic, he could certainly manipulate with in Rhodey’s loyalty to him and his excitement and interest in the Avenger’s Initiative as a whole. Rhodey and Tony were every bit as close as Tony and Pepper, family of a fashion, and their friendship had been put on the backburner for too long now. Tony had missed Rhodey dearly and he knew his best friend felt the same way. He also knew that Rhodey felt he should be doing more for the world than what he currently was (which, when there wasn’t a pumped up super villain threatening America, the military wasn’t that creative with what they assigned to him), and had wished that he could have been part of the battle in New York, had wished he’d been there to help Tony. Gods, Tony had been spending too much time with Loki. Sure, he’d meddled before, but he'd used to be a much more straightforward person.

By the time Tony hung up the phone, he felt pretty convinced that he’d be hearing back from Rhodey again very soon and that he would get the answer he was wanting. He also felt fairly convinced that Pepper would accept his proposition, as it was the most logical thing for her to do, and Pepper was nothing if not logical.

With all of the secrets Tony had been keeping, he was certain this was a recipe for disaster, but when it blew up in his face he was going to need all of the help he could get.

 

Tony woke up yowling, though he’d never call it that aloud, as Pepper ripped his oh-so-warm and comfortable covers off of him. He didn’t know how his unconscious mind hadn’t adjusted to such harsh treatment yet, considering more often than not on weekdays, this was how he was woken, now. It was a good thing that he’d had the foresight to disassemble the cot he’d made for himself during one of Loki’s disappearances (he hadn’t really taken kindly to Loki kicking him out of his own bed to begin with, much less after they’d slept together), considering Pepper’s lack of respect for his personal space. He was so tired of seeing the morning sun outside. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d actually managed to pull an all-nighter.

Pepper smirked down at him and he was just glad that Loki had been absent since Pepper and Rhodey had moved in a couple of weeks ago (he wasn’t certain if it was predominantly sulking or predominantly plotting that had spurred the Trickster’s current disappearance, and had excused it on a business trip when the others pried), as he hated to imagine what Loki would do to him in the wake of being woken in such a rude manner. Tony sighed, rolling his eyes at his CEO, and finally uncurled his body from the fetal position it had assumed to retain warmth in the absence of his covers. When he glanced at the clock, his already distinctly unamused expression curdled further.

“Pep, I know we’re like, doing this whole early and productive thing now, but why the fuck did you have to wake me up before dawn?” 

The damned witch of a woman had the nerve to outright beam at him. “We have company. Tony.”

That was when he noticed the subtle rumbling of thunder outside and felt his insides doused in a freezing dose of pure fear. Fucking hell, he hoped Loki didn't come back today. 

 

The God of Thunder, while mostly his usual boisterous self, had a hint of something less… optimistically shining about him, now. There was a strain to his brow, eyes, and mouth that hadn’t been there the last time Tony had seen him, and even Steve seemed to sense an aura of something almost forlorn about him. At any rate, no one was addressing the slight shift in personality, and everybody seemed to be shooting the shit as per usual in Stark… no, Avengers' Tower’s penthouse kitchen. Thor’s booming laugh sounded out as he regaled his comrades with a tale of slaying a… bilgesnipe?... and somehow simultaneously managed to stuff his face with what appeared to be half of the mountainous pile of waffles on his plate. 

Tony decided he’d been playing creepy observer for long enough and stepped into the kitchen. “Hey there, He-Man. What brings you to our neck of the galaxy?”

Thor turned to him with a mighty smile (everything the guy did was mighty). “Man of Iron! It is a most joyous occasion to see you again. I hear my thanks are in order for providing us all with such wonderful accommodations. Your hospitality is most generous, indeed.” And then the Thunderer stood and before Tony could make a swift and tactical escape, he was enveloped in a hug that made his spine crack. Multiple times. As well as his shoulders. Yowch. Seriously, if he ever needed a realignment, Thor was the guy to call. You know, if he didn’t actually break every bone in his body, instead. 

He patted weakly at Thor’s shoulder and tried to inhale enough to speak through the suffocating embrace. “Good to see you, too, Governator. And really, it was no trouble. Didn’t really know when you’d drop in again, but I’d hoped you might make use of the space if you did.”

“I am gladdened that you thought so. It is good to spend time with my brothers and sister in arms. I have missed you all, and all of your strange mannerisms. I did not know that I would return so soon, myself. However, many things have happened with Asgard. Jane was with me for a time, but wished to return to earth, so I have returned with her and decided to come call on my teammates whilst here.”

“What sort of stuff’s been doing on Asgard?” Tony didn’t know whether he was worried Thor would tell of Loki’s escape or if he would be relieved if he did.

“Asgard has been at war. It lasted for quite some time, and we were victorious, but at a heavy price. Many of our own were lost.”

It seemed that much that Loki had told him was true, after all. It would also seem that Thor was reluctant to mention to his “brothers in arms” that his brother had escaped his oh-so-advanced Asgardian prison.

 

Tony was in his lab, adjusting the design of a new suit on his tablet when a hand wrapped around his throat. He hadn’t even heard the doors to the lab open, but he knew they must have, since Loki had been so careful since the other Avengers had moved in. With Thor there, though, Tony imagined the god would be downright walking on eggshells.

And Loki had to be thrilled about that, as this most recent attempt at near strangulation could attest. “Hi honey, welcome home,” Tony managed to hiss. “I missed you. By the way, big brother dropped in for a visit.”

Loki threw him against his workbench and stormed out of the lab. Tony put down his tablet and trailed quietly after him, after taking a moment to catch his breath. When he arrived upstairs, he was greeted with the sight of Loki reclining in his favored arm chair as Thor ambled into the room. Shit. Loki looked up as Thor paused, glancing in confusion between the redheaded stranger in Tony’s apartment and Tony as Tony came to a halt at the edge of the room. 

“Man of Iron, who is your friend?” The Thunderer turned to smile at Loki. 

Tony walked forward, coming to a stop behind Loki’s chair as he placed his hands lightly on the god’s shoulders. Loki was looking innocently at Thor, not a hint of malice or recognition in his carefully curious expression. 

“Point Break, this is Lyell Smith. My boyfriend. Lyell, meet Point Break.” 

“Anthony, darling, whatever is his proper name?” Tony flashed a shit-eating grin at the Trickster.

“I am Thor, of Asgard. It is a pleasure to meet you, Smithy.” 

Loki chuckled while Tony sighed exasperatedly. “Thor, buddy, remind me to give you a crash course on earth names.”

“Of course, Man of Iron. But first, what is a 'boyfriend?'"

Loki’s laughter was malicious and Tony had bigger problems than the God of Thunder recognizing his little brother to deal with then.


	15. The Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Damsel in Distress

Something was up. Tony knew it. Loki had been acting strange lately and had been doing his best to manipulate Tony into not leaving the Tower. At first it had been a little difficult to figure out considering Tony hadn’t exactly been a social butterfly recently, but when the Avengers had decided to go out for dinner at their favorite schwarma joint, Loki had enticed him into following him into the bedroom, gotten him all hot and bothered long enough for the others to leave without him, then left Tony high and dry. 

It had been getting unnerving, to say the least. Also unnerving was how decidedly domestic and peaceful their playing house had actually turned out to be. Tony knew better than to fall for their own charade, but he had to admit his feelings for Loki were convoluted at best and a miasma of confusion at worst. Thor was off presumably visiting Jane, the other Avengers were at SHIELD headquarters, Rhodey was doing military things, and Loki had poofed out leaving Tony alone with Pepper and a pile of work. They were down on one of the lower floors of the Tower in Pepper’s office when suddenly the glass of the windows shattered. 

Tony didn’t even have time to blink before one fucking ugly… something… was gripping him by the throat with a terrifyingly inhuman six-fingered hand. He could hear Pepper shouting, but didn’t register what she was saying, all of his attention on the face that was looming over his. Its body was streaked with pleats of golden metal which continued up its face. Its eyes and the upper half of its face were hidden and its mouth opened to show teeth that were the color of old blood as it grinned horrifyingly at him from the shadow of its cloak. 

“I had a feeling the son of Laufey would come back for that which he left in you.” The creature paused. “It took little to draw him back to your side. He appeared at the first sign of threat to you. Your kind are so easily controlled and so easily disposed of after they’ve been made of use. However, the attempts the humans I enslaved made on your life were admittedly disappointing.” Here, his hand squeezed more tightly. “It appears I will have to reclaim that which resides in you that belongs to my master. I wonder what the little Trickster will do when he finds your corpse after I am through extracting it?” 

Tony knew he was in trouble. His body had locked up in terror, the PTSD that the alien figure in front of him drew out making his lack of oxygen all the more acute, and he could feel the black abyss of unconsciousness threatening to consume him. His ears were ringing and he could feel the buzz of panic shocking his system. Suddenly, just as the edges of his vision were beginning to blur, the creature was thrown off of him and he was tumbling gracelessly to land in a heap on the floor. As he drew in one deep, desperate lungful of air after another and the ringing in his ears began to fade, he could hear the sound of repulsor blasts and what sounded much like the firing of Chitauri weaponry. 

When his vision had cleared and he looked up, there was Pepper in her armor, and he felt nearly faint with fear for her. The jolt of seeing her defending him from the grotesque creature that was set on killing him brought him mostly back to his senses. He activated the bracelets on his wrists and within seconds his suit was assembling around him. As he waited for the metal to slip into place, he watched in horror as the alien blasted Pepper directly in the chest with one of the Chitauri blasters it was holding. She managed to score a hit to its abdomen with a repulsor as she went down, but the creature gave no indication that it had felt it. 

Tony felt pure terror wash through his veins as he watched her hit the ground in what seemed like slow motion, waiting for some movement, some sign of life. But she remained utterly still as his faceplate slid down. The creature had turned its attention to him and he rocketed into it, knocking them both into the far wall of the office. It threw him off with little effort, but the imprint of both of their bodies remained in the plaster and concrete they had flown into. 

What were the fucking odds? He lived with two gods, a super soldier, a fucking Hulk, two assassins, and two other Iron Men, and they attacked when it was just him and Pepper, who until now had never had the opportunity to battle in her suit. What he wouldn’t give for just one of the others to be there right then. Tony had fought a lot of losing battles but he’d never had to face something this fucking strong head-on by himself, much less with one of his dearest friends bleeding out on the floor in the meanwhile. Where the fuck was Loki when he needed him? The god had barely let him out of his sight lately, and now he was out who the fuck knew where while his dirty laundry was trying to kill Tony.

Tony shot a unibeam off, hitting the alien square in the chest. It staggered but recovered, lunged forward, and sliced a glowing blade into Tony’s torso just inches beneath the Arc Reactor. It tore through the metal of his suit like it was made of butter and Tony felt a weakness begin to set into his limbs as he slid slowly to the ground at its feet. It chuckled wetly as it reached a hand out to rest over the Arc Reactor. Tony could not make his limbs move, could not even make his chest expand to breathe. He could only watch in horror as the creature’s hand began to glow and then he felt a pull.

Then, Loki appeared, black hair in disheveled riotous curls, snarling down at the grotesque alien as he flung it away from Tony. Tony had the presence of mind to hope that the new safety measures he’d been implementing with JARVIS worked. As the seconds passed by, and he watched Loki fire blast after blast of green magic at the creature and nearly all of them be deflected, he felt that hope withering. But as Loki just barely evaded a shot to the gut, he saw a glinting whirl of green and gold metal speeding through the shattered glass of the windows, breaking more in its wake. Loki and the monstrosity he was fighting both turned at the sound of shattering glass, and Loki’s eyes widened in surprise as the suit began to assemble around him. He turned a brief, questioning glance to Tony before the faceplate slid home, then twisted back around to redouble his efforts at overpowering the beast.

It dove, pulling out that same glowing blade that it had struck Tony with, but as it launched itself at Loki, he held out a gauntleted hand and suddenly the temperature in the room plummeted. Tony could barely discern the temperature drop, as his flesh was steadily becoming more numbed, but he could see the fog of his faltering breath in the air. He watched as the alien fell, frozen solid, and Loki took aim with the same hand that had worked the magic and fired off a powerful repulsor blast. The creature shattered into millions of vile and tiny chunks, its innards a blackened purple that was sickening. It smelled like corroded battery acid.

Loki crunched through the slush over to Tony’s side, bending over him as the suit dismantled. He waved a hand and it disappeared to whatever pocket dimension Loki hid his valuables in. He saw Loki’s hands moving over his wound, tried to tell him Pepper first, but his lips refused to form the words. Suddenly, there was an arc of mixed blue and green light flowing between them and Tony felt warmth streaming through his numbed flesh. When the light finally died down and slowed to a trickle, Loki pulled his hands away. Where the wound had been on Tony’s chest, there was a starburst scar emitting glowing green light. He saw Loki looking in bewilderment at his hands and saw that each palm held an identical starburst, glowing the blue of Tony’s reactor. 

Loki waved a hand, closing the hole in Tony’s suit, and clenched his fists shut. Before either had a chance to think further on the strangeness of it, and before Tony or Loki could even check to see if Pepper was still alive, the rest of the Avengers came crashing in through the door of the office. They stopped, stunned at the sight of Loki still kneeling over Tony’s prone body with Pepper unmoving nearby and chunks of rancid alien coating nearly every surface. Thor’s face as he looked at Loki was tortured and the rest of the Avengers’ shock and outrage was blatant. It was clear they had the wrong idea about the situation, though it was easy to see why. Loki, on the other hand, looked resigned, and after a sigh that blank façade Tony hated so much came down over his features and he disappeared. 

In Loki’s absence, the temperature immediately rose back to normal, and Tony could hear the hiss of alien flesh thawing and burning whatever it touched. He avoided the slush of it underfoot as he rose and ran immediately to Pepper’s side, and as he took in the amount of blood that coated the floor around her unmoving form, he felt his heart stutter.

 

The hours after that were a mad dash. He and Bruce had rushed Pepper to the med-bay as quickly as they could, doing what little was possible to staunch her blood loss on the way there. The fact that it had already begun to slow was worrisome because they both knew the wound wasn’t clotting and it meant Pepper was running low on blood to lose. She coded four times before they could stabilize her, but the gaping wound in her chest was going to be nearly impossible to fix. 

Tony quickly resigned himself to what he was going to have to do and left Bruce to keep her stabilized as he made a mad dash to the nearest lab. He rushed the delicate work as much as he possibly could, but the painstaking process of building a new housing for an arc reactor took far more time than Tony was comfortable with, while Pepper was just waiting to flat line again down in the med-bay. When he finally completed the metallic housing, grabbed his spare arc reactor, and made it back to her side, she was pale as death and hooked up to a ventilator. 

He and Bruce knew the surgery was likely to kill her, but there was no way she would survive the series of surgeries it would take to close the hole in her chest. 

 

Tony snapped off his bloodied gloves as Bruce cleaned up. He gave Pepper a kiss on the forehead, relieved that her pulse appeared to be steady. They had a couple more scares during the surgery, which was no surprise, but had managed to resuscitate her each time. Now, she was as stable as they could hope for, the new reactor humming in its cradle of metal inside of her chest. The glow of hers was a slightly deeper shade of blue than his and it painted the pallor of her skin eerily. 

He left Bruce to keep watch on her and traipsed up the stairs to the common area. As he walked in, the raised voices in the room went silent. He met the gazes of the rest of the team stubbornly. After a lengthy silence, Steve stepped forward.

“Tony, what happened?”

Tony clenched his teeth in preparation for the distaste his answer would prompt in the others. “That creature… the alien whose chopped up bits are dissolving the floor of Pepper’s office… it attacked me. Pepper called her suit because I went into a panic attack and she tried to fend it off of me. She got shot down and I got it together enough that I summoned my own suit and tried my hand at killing it. Instead I got knifed in the chest, and it must have used some type of poison because I was paralyzed.” He walked over to the bar to poor himself a scotch, then downed it in one gulp and turned again to face the others. “Loki showed up, froze the bastard, and then blew it all to hell. He healed my wound, and then you guys showed up.”

“Why would Loki save you?” It was Thor who broached the next question.

“Fuck if I know. I don’t really think it was about saving me so much as it was about killing that ugly motherfucker.” He poured another shot of scotch. “At least I know who’s been trying to kill me, now. Apparently, ugly could use mind control on humans.” He gulped down the scotch. “I think the real questions here should be why the fuck was Loki not in his little cage in Asgard, and why did he kill an alien that was wielding Chitauri technology?” He pinned Thor with his gaze accusingly. 

Thor’s eyes shifted away from Tony’s for a moment, and when they met his again, they were simultaneously heartbroken and in ecstasy. “I thought Loki dead... Malekith killed mother, and Loki's desire for vengeance for her was enough that he helped me to deceive and to defeat the dark elves... but I saw him die with my own eyes." The relieved confusion on Thor's face was painful to look at.

Thor's explanation gave Tony pause and he barely restrained his surprise. That was certainly a little something Loki had omitted, but it appeared the rest of their stories matched up. “My condolences on your mother, Thor. And on your brother being a deceptive little cunt." Tony paused, hoping that remark didn't make its way back to Loki some way or another, despite its validity in this context. "Great, so we have a psychopathic God of Mischief set loose on the universe. Good to know, this late in the game.” Tony began to pace. “Beyond that, none of this fucking adds up. What are the odds that alien wasn’t involved with the Chitauri, when it had their weaponry? And what are the odds Loki would just suddenly decide to burn his bridges with them?” He paused in his pacing. “Why would they want to kill me, and why would he feel the need to save me from them? It’s certainly not because I offered him a fucking drink the last time he was in town.” 

The others looked at him, their expressions horrified at the implications of this recent appearance of the would-be-conqueror of earth. Horrified that Loki may no longer be the greatest threat to them.

“There’s something more to what’s going on with Loki than what we’ve assumed. I don’t think there’s any way any of us can avoid acknowledging that after what just happened. We need to figure out what the fuck it is, why the fuck he'd fake his own death, before we all get caught in the crossfire again. Because what just happened? Was probably just the appetizer.”

Thor looked blindsided by the implications of Tony’s little speech, while Steve appeared absolutely torn. Rhodey’s own countenance was still banked fury and heart-wrenching worry from the situation with Pepper, and Clint seemed as thrilled as if he’d just smelled a rotting corpse. But Natasha was suspicious, and that was really fucking scary. Tony was super fucking glad JARVIS appeared to have wiped the security footage after Loki appeared, without Tony even ordering it, which should be scary in its own right. 


	16. Actual Disney Princess Loki

Tony winced as he stuck the needle in his arm. The solution inside of it burned as he pressed down on the plunger and it entered his veins. He knew how dangerous it was to attempt what he was doing, but if it worked, if his calculations were correct, it would be worth it. And really, people called him a genius for a reason. If anyone could have perfected those calculations, if anyone could have fixed them, it was him. Besides, he was going to need a few extra guns in his arsenal, and if they were guns no one else knew about, so much the better. 

The discomfort grew incrementally over the next few hours and he barred himself away from the rest of the world in his lab. He managed to sleep restlessly through the worst of it and when he awoke, he noticed the change almost instantly. It was a pleasant, if extremely faint, hum through his veins, just brushing at his awareness. Tony smiled, certain that his experiment was going to succeed.

 

Tony visited Pepper often over the next few weeks and with each visit, he grew more convinced that not only was she recovering, but that she was thriving. He’d kept up his secret regimen of injections, and each time he stepped inside of the room with her, he could feel the thrum of her arc reactor and the power it emitted. He could feel the alteration it was making to what seemed to be her very nature, and he wondered often if her body was beginning to undergo the same changes that Loki had sensed in his. 

Every time Tony saw her, his guilt ate at him. Not only had she nearly given her life for him, now she was undergoing some really fucking unprecedented changes and he didn’t know what the end result would be, whether they would help her or destroy her. It had been the best chance of saving her life, but he didn’t even have a clue what the arc reactor was doing to him, and now he could never know for certain what alterations in his physiology came from it, what came from Loki’s magical cocktail, and what was from his own injections. The serum was the icing on the cake that was Tony’s guilt. He’d been the one to cure Pepper of Extremis and now he’d taken that same creation and tweaked it to suit his own needs. The fact that he couldn’t tell her, couldn’t tell any of them yet, certainly wasn’t helping his conscience.

 

Then there came a day when Tony went to visit Pepper and was met with a most… unusual surprise. When he opened the door to her room in the med-bay, not only was Pepper awake, but she had company. Company that wasn’t supposed to be alive and breathing, much less walking around handing out SHIELD paperwork in Tony’s Tower. 

Pepper turned a weak smile on Tony when she heard the door close behind him, and the smile that Coulson flashed at him was a smug smirk that made Tony feel like punching him in the face. Seriously, the guy looked like he could be running marathons, not like he was supposed to be six-feet-under dead and gone.

“What the fuck is Shawn of the Dead doing here?” Of course, instead of expressing his joy at seeing Pepper alive and awake for the first time in weeks, those were the first words out of his mouth.

If anything, Coulson’s smirk got worse. “I’m just here to debrief Ms. Potts and Colonel Rhodes on the Avengers Initiative. What with their moving in with yourself and the rest of the team members, SHIELD thought it was about time they be brought officially into the fold.”

Of course, Tony had known SHIELD wouldn’t keep their claws off of the only two other individuals with access to his Iron Man technology. Well, the only two they knew about, at any rate. As he thought of the person who possessed the third suit he had parted with, he was both furious and fond in near equal measure. He hadn’t heard from Loki since he’d disappeared the day of the attack, which wasn’t really all that surprising. No matter how he looked at it, the Avengers (save for Thor) hated Loki for what he’d done, and Loki would be loathe to risk discovery right now. Especially with whatever schemes he had going on. Which, Tony suspected, involved the “Master” of the fucking alien that had cost him a fortune in remodeling. 

He smirked to himself as he thought about what else Loki had gained with the suit. He carefully extended his senses, letting his new awareness and a tiny thrill of power rush through him, and felt the vaguest of tugs from an immeasurable distance. Even if the tracking device he had installed in the suit couldn’t be picked up on by his technology at this degree of separation, his new enhancements allowed him to extend that limited reach further, beyond earth, maybe even beyond their galaxy, to sense Loki wherever he may be. 

Maybe Tony hadn’t found a way to duplicate Loki’s teleportation, or to stop it, or any of those other crazy projects he’d taken on to distract himself. He had, however, succeeded in this much at least, and in analyzing his readings on Loki’s magic. What he had, himself, might not be magic, at least not what he was able to use… but he’d found his studies of Loki’s magic usage had proved very insightful in exploring his own newfound powers and in learning to hone them. So yeah, he’d say that all in all that had been a pretty successful endeavor, after all.

As he turned to leave the room, Coulson caught his attention one last time. “By the way, Stark, I’ll be moving into the Tower, as well. SHIELD orders. You understand, of course?” They both knew it wasn’t a fucking question, so Tony didn’t know why the bastard bothered.

“Yeah, yeah. Sure, whatever. You can move your ass in on Clint’s floor and he can deal with you.” Tony opened the door to leave the room. “By the way, actually kind of glad you’re not dead, you sneaky son of a bitch.” He walked out of the med-bay to Coulson’s self-satisfied chuckle and Pepper’s tinkling laughter.

 

Tony was working on upgrades for his, Pepper’s, and Rhodey’s suits when a hand wrapped around his neck, forcing him back and pulling him flush against a steely chest. He dropped whatever tools he had in his hands and tried to spin around, but before he could, he was being sucked through a void, disoriented and sightless, and landing pressed between Loki and the foot of his bed. Loki’s hand reluctantly released its grip on his throat, and he was being shoved back onto the mattress.

Tony growled in annoyance and jumped back off of the bed. Loki’s eyes were twin pools of emerald fire and Tony imagined the glare on his face would be enough to make most “mortals” run in the opposite direction in terror. But Tony was so done with Loki's diva bullshit. It had been nearly a month since he’d been attacked and were it not for his own manipulation of his genetics with Extremis, he wouldn’t have had a clue if the god was even still alive, especially what with how popular he seemed to be in his home worlds. And, you know, pretty much all other worlds, too.

“Would you care to tell me why I’ve felt you clawing at my seidr, Stark, or, pray tell, how you are even capable of sensing it to badger me thusly?”

Tony smirked. If Loki was going to play belligerent asshat with him, then two could play that game. Tony practically swaggered over to him.

“I don’t know what the fuck a seidr is, but I don’t kiss and tell, baby. Well, actually I do. Usually. But not about my tech. You don’t tell me about all of your magic-y hoodoo shit, either, now do you?” He didn’t pause for a response. “You’ve got your secrets, I’ve got mine, and unless you want to have story hour with me about where the fuck you’ve been, you’re not getting the deets.”

Loki snarled at him, and Tony lightly fisted a hand in the god’s flowing mane of curls, pulling him closer. When he mashed their lips together, it was lightly, almost gently, and he hummed softly in pleasure. He pulled away slowly, and when he did, Loki’s eyes were hooded and his lips were still parted invitingly. He didn’t step away, instead twining his arms loosely around the god’s waist. 

“Gods, how I’ve missed you Tony,” Tony teased, imitating Loki’s voice (and very poorly). “Is it really that hard to say? I’ll admit, I did kind of miss seeing you prancing about here and hissing like a scalded cat whenever I pissed you off.”

Loki rolled his eyes, and Tony moved in to kiss him again, pressing them nearer to the bed. As their kisses grew more heated, and Loki’s mouth on his grew more desperate, he thought that it hadn’t been a lie. He had missed the cantankerous deity, more than he’d wanted (or been willing) to admit. And the way the god was pressed up against him, with not a breath of air between them, he thought there was no way that Loki hadn’t missed him just as much. Missed this just as much.

Dear gods, they hadn’t done this since that first night and there was still so much to explore. New expanses of skin to map out, new hollows and crevices to touch and caress. Fuck, how badly he wanted Loki on his knees in front of him, moaning his pleasure while Tony pounded into him from behind. The thought of all of the possibilities made him nearly insane with want, and he groaned into their kiss.

Then suddenly, Loki was pulling away from him, and Tony felt bereft at the loss of the lithe body pressed so tightly against his. But Loki smirked seductively at him as he crawled up onto the bed, coming to sit in the very center of it. He began to unbuckle and unlace his Asgardian armor excruciatingly slowly, calculatedly making each movement as erotic as possible. By the time Loki’s torso was bare, Tony was painfully hard and gracelessly beginning to throw off his own clothing. 

Tony waited, impatient and naked and aroused, standing at the foot of the bed as Loki took his time removing his pants. The careful undulating of his hips as he slipped the leather down over his ass, then off of his absurdly long, pale, slender legs had Tony biting his lip and digging his fingers into the mattress. When Loki finally tossed them aside, he slithered seductively over to brace himself on his hands and knees, tilting his head cockily back at Tony to give him a “come hither” stare, and Tony scrambled artlessly onto the bed behind him. Within seconds, he was kissing every inch of milky white skin he could reach, while Loki chuckled breathlessly at his enthusiasm.

Tony ran his hands worshipfully over Loki’s delicate spine, pressing kisses into the nape of his neck, and scraped his fingernails lightly over the god’s rib-cage. He trailed feather-light caresses over Loki’s nipples and across the defined ridges of muscle in his abdomen, tickling at his hipbones but never touching where Loki wanted it the most. The god’s lusciously curved backside was soon grinding demandingly back against Tony’s own erection, and it was all Tony could do to breathe. 

Loki snarled his frustration and nudged Tony off of him, giving him a glare of warning. Then, he plucked the bottle of lube out of the drawer of the bedside table and began to liberally apply it to his fingers. Tony watched in utter fascination as Loki remained braced on his elbow and his knees, spreading his legs wider and snaking his hand back between them to slip the first finger into his entrance. The pace as Loki started was slow, deliberately set to torment Tony, but eventually his impatience won out and he slipped a second finger and then a third inside of himself, canting his hips back against them almost desperately. Tony could tell when he managed to find the right angle, because Loki’s panting for air turned into incoherent moans. Finally, when Tony could see the god’s thighs quivering, Loki pulled his fingers out and turned arousal dazed eyes back on Tony.

Tony fumbled quickly for the lube that Loki had left near him on the bed, pouring some onto his palm and then stroking it across his length. Then he moved forward, between the god’s splayed legs, grabbing Loki’s hip with one hand as he used the other to position himself at Loki’s glistening entrance. When he pressed slowly inside of the god, they both groaned in relief. He gave a slow roll of his hips, smiling when he saw how Loki had given up on holding himself up, his chest flat against the mattress as he fisted his hands into the sheets in front of him.

Tony tried to keep the pace slow, wanting to draw the sex out for as long as he could, especially since this was the first time he’d gotten to fuck Loki, especially since it had been so fucking long. But because it had been so long, there was no way either of them was going to be able to last, and soon their hips were slapping wildly together, Loki managing to cant his just that certain way and that drove Tony fucking crazy. At least the move appeared to have robbed Loki of his senses every bit as much as it had Tony, if the mewls of pleasure that were falling from his lips were any indication. 

He reached his hand around to Loki’s dripping cock, feeling it jump at his touch. He swirled his fingers in the god’s precome, smearing it across his length and lightly flicking the tip with his thumb. He felt Loki tighten deliciously around him, then fisted his hand around the god’s cock, stroking him slowly at first, then working up to the same rhythm as his thrusts. He could feel Loki’s own thrusts growing jerky, feel the vice-like grip of him growing even tighter, and then the god’s come was splattering hotly over his chest, the sheets, and Tony’s hand. Tony’s movements became harsher and Loki moaned in agonized pleasure underneath him as Tony’s cock raked over that sensitive bundle of nerves inside of him, his body mercilessly over-stimulated. 

He reached back and grabbed Tony’s hand where it gripped one of his hips, pulling it forward and laving at the palm of it before he bit down viciously. Tony hissed sharply in surprise at the sting of it, feeling that tightening in the pit of his belly and the tell-tale warmth racing across his spine before the warm jets of his come were gushing inside of Loki. 

They collapsed into a boneless, gasping heap on the bed, sweaty limbs tangled as they attempted to catch their breath. After a few moments, Tony managed to shuffle off of Loki to lie curled beside of him and was surprised when the god pulled him close, curling his body around Tony’s to spoon him. Loki gave a soft sigh that sounded suspiciously close to contentment and nuzzled against Tony’s neck. 

“You know, you’re the first that I’ve let have their way with me as well, Stark.” Tony started when the god spoke and his eyes widened as he registered Loki’s words. “Don’t let it go to your already over-inflated head, however. I merely saw how much you enjoyed it and found myself a bit curious.” Tony could feel Loki’s lips curving into that sly smile that always set him on edge. “And now that Asgard has washed its hands of me, there’s no sense in my worrying over gaining the stigma of being argr.” 

“Argr? Is that godly slang for gay?” Loki gave a most undignified snort and Tony felt rather pleased with himself. But he wasn’t going to let himself be lulled out of the interrogation he wanted to give the god, no matter how delicious it felt to have Loki’s long limbs curled around him. 

“Rudolph, what was that thing?” His voice was soft as he broached the topic, hesitant. 

Loki’s body stiffened slightly against his, and the god remained silent long enough that Tony doubted he would receive an answer. Then Loki huffed and pulled him closer against his body, unconsciously swirling his fingers over the glowing green mark on Tony’s chest. Tony could feel a sparking tingle every time Loki’s shining blue palm grazed over the spot, so much more intense than the buzz that was generated every time they touched. 

“It is called the Other and it was the commander of the Chitauri army.” Loki’s voice was even softer than Tony’s had been when he finally replied.

“Loki, it said it wanted to take back what belonged to its Master… that there was something inside of me that belonged to its Master. What did it mean?”

Loki’s fingers stilled, his palm pressed over that iridescent glow. “There is a being that dwells in the darkest reaches of the universe. The Chitauri and the Other belong to him. He is known as the Mad Titan and the powers I drew on when I attacked were his.” The hum of magic where Loki’s hand met Tony’s chest grew harsher. “Pray that you never meet him Stark, for all he covets is Death.” 

Tony felt a chill creep down his spine and for a brief moment felt almost assuredly that they were being watched. He shrugged it off. “So, I have some of his magic inside of me?”

“Unfortunately, Stark, you do. And what resides in you is no mere pittance. I would train you to use it, but I would not draw his attention if I can help it.”

Tony hummed softly. “That’s why you bound your own magic, so he wouldn’t be able to find you.” Loki gave a noncommittal grunt in reply. “Is that why it feels so… strange, whenever we touch? Is it because of the magic?” Tony hadn’t made the connection until now, but after experimenting with his new powers in the last couple of weeks, he felt certain he’d touched on the right explanation. 

Loki chuckled softly. “Very good, Stark. Yes, when we come into contact, our magic reaches out, and when it brushes… well, that’s the sensation you’re feeling. I can give no better explanation than that.”

“Hmm… that’s okay. I think I get it, mostly. So wait. Do you not feel it, too? How does that work?” Loki shifted behind him and Tony got the distinct impression that he was rolling his eyes.

But after a moment, the god responded. “Yes, Stark, it’s the same for me.” 

Tony made a small, satisfied sound at the admission, and was quiet for some time after that as he thought over the rest of the questions he wanted to ask. Loki’s fingers began to idly tap against his arc reactor and he was glad the god seemed content to let him organize his thoughts.

“So, the reason you disappear so often and that you come back so beat up sometimes… it all has to do with this big bad that these aliens were working for, doesn’t it?” The fact that Loki didn’t reply was all the answer Tony needed. “It’s not actually a question of if he notices us, is it, Loki?” Loki gave no indication that he had even heard Tony’s question, but Tony could feel the god’s heart hammering where his chest touched Tony’s back. It terrified him, because the Loki he knew, the Loki that Thor had regaled them with stories of, was not afraid of anything. This Loki? He was utterly terrified. “He already has, hasn’t he. You’re just trying to prepare for when he finally decides to make his move because you already know that he will.” Loki remained as silent as the grave behind him but he kept his body curled almost protectively around Tony’s. 

“Loki, you know we’re going to have to tell them, right? ‘Cause you and me aren’t going to be enough to handle this.” The snarl that statement garnered was bloodthirsty and terror-inducing. But Loki could suck it up, because Tony knew he was right. Whatever shit was about to go down was going to be worse than anything any of them had ever faced before, and one human in a tin can and one Norse god were not going to be enough to save the day. 

“Pray tell, human, just what you think I’ve been doing in all my travels? Twiddling my thumbs? I am of Asgard, and I can fend for myself.” Despite the acidity of his words, Loki’s body remained coiled tightly around Tony’s. 

“There’s no need to be melodramatic, Cinderella. And that’s another thing! I thought we agreed naked time equaled calling me by my name, not mortal or human or Stark.” Tony yelped when Loki nipped the nape of his neck.

“I will call you whatever I so choose, human. I am a god, if you'll recall.” Tony attempted to turn and swat at Loki, but instead was forced into breathless laughter as the god began to mercilessly tickle him, the underhanded son of a bitch. Tony hadn’t even been aware that Loki had a playful side. The action was surprising to say the least, at least once Tony could draw enough breath to think about it. The tickling had certainly served its purpose and brought an end to Tony’s incessant and important questions, however. And goddamn it, Tony did not find it endearing, not whatsoever. Loki was a vicious drama queen and he would not be convinced otherwise.

But as he fell asleep, feeling the rhythm of Loki’s heartbeat against him, he couldn’t help but think that vicious drama queen or no, he was becoming rather fond of the menace, and he was relieved and maybe… just maybe… a little happy that Loki had shown back up, finally. 

 

Thanos followed the tug of his magic to the mortal, looking through the man’s eyes and seeing all that he saw. A wicked smile pulled at the corners of his mouth as he noticed the little Trickster god lying naked and vulnerable, feigning sleep beside of the mortal. He had been watching the pair often, and while the loss of the Other was an irritation that he wanted some manner of bloody retribution for, he was almost glad that it had not managed to do away with the intriguing human.

No, it would be so much sweeter to deprive Loki of his newest toy himself. He had seen the exasperated fondness in the god’s eyes when they rested on the human, even if neither Loki nor this Tony Stark had realized it themselves. He had also felt the tenderness of the mortal’s own emotions where the Lie-Smith was concerned. Yes, he would enjoy snuffing out the life of Tony Stark right before Loki’s eyes with the god powerless to stop it. He would have his power back, though he had little need of it with the amount he had at his disposal, and he would have his revenge on Loki Laufeyson. 

There was no one and nothing that could stop him. Besides, he imagined that his Lady would be very pleased when he handed her their corpses. Thanos sealed off his connection with the mortal’s mind, and turned to the shadowed figure in his hall. She walked forward, poisonously green eyes glinting through the darkness, then kneeled before him.

“I have a task for you, Gamora.”

The girl was young, a child, really, but little did it matter. She was powerful, primordially so, and he had raised her to be one of the strongest tools in his possession. The gauntlet he wore glimmered as he brushed a hand over the dark mane of her hair. The smile she turned up at him would strike terror into the heart of every mortal on that gods forsaken backwater of a planet and she would pave the way for him to grant his Lady his greatest gift yet. 

As she rose, disappearing in a cloud of green smoke, he cast his gaze again toward the couple on Midgard. Yes, the Avengers and the God of Lies would grant him the favor of his lady-love. He would have her heart and he did not care how many worlds he had to destroy to win it. He had destroyed many in pursuit of her already. Not even Odin All-Father, his thundering and golden heir, and the Jotunn fosterling he had taken in would stand in his way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second and third installations of the series are now posted!
> 
> Links to all of the art by the fabulous the-dreaming-grass:  
> 1) http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/post/62410779090/round-2-everybody-this-ones-for-roxy-who-knows  
> 2) http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/post/62411490431/do-you-like-what-you-see-a-favor-owed-by  
> 3) http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/post/62698885347/one-last-very-overdue-piece-for-a-favor-owed-by  
> 4) http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/post/62412860040/mr-ginger-curls-smith-from-a-favor-owed-by  
> 5) http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/post/62411959299/i-had-hoped-you-were-not-yet-a-lost-cause-but-it  
> 6) http://the-dreaming-grass.tumblr.com/post/62412946663/a-favor-owed-by-spookz-magenta-this-is-the


End file.
